Letterboxd is the social media app of choice for many movie fans out there—and for good reason. The service has long been a platform for rating movies, sharing and viewing recommendations, and organizing your watch lists. Now, however, the company is gearing up for a new business model: on-demand video streaming.
Letterboxd announced the news at the Cannes film festival on Tuesday . While the company’s reveal is lacking many details, we do have some idea of what to expect. The new streaming service will be called the Letterboxd Video Store, and will host “shelves” of select titles.
These movies are curated by Letterboxd, and are quite specific. According to the company, Letterboxd Video Store customers can expect to find movies in the film festival circuit, lesser-known movies, and films from around the world, as well as titles from new filmmakers. Letterboxd is making a point to offer movies that don’t have a wide distribution yet, which means the service might offer a way for people to see a movie they otherwise never would have.
You’ll be able to rent these movies on-demand, similar to other services like Prime Video, Apple TV, or Google Play, or during specified windows of time. As of yet, however, there is no release date or specific timeline for the feature. Letterboxd says that details on which movies they’ll release, which regions they will support, and launch dates will be announced in “the coming months.”
Hopefully, those months come sooner rather than later. This sounds like a great feature, and a complement to other non-traditional streaming services like Mubi . In the meantime, if you’re looking for ways to get more out of your Letterboxd experience, Lifehacker contributor Eric Ravenscraft recently offered five tips to make the most of the app —especially if you’re willing to pay for Letterboxd’s premium subscription tiers.
