What is rotten tomatoes

So while the the Rotten Tomatoes rating system is really just general consensus, you can see some of the more renowned critics in a different space. You also get a fully rounded out review because you can also see how the audience feels. The score is the percentage of users who have rated the movie or show positively. There is also a section for Verified Ratings which includes those that have actually bought tickets.

The most interesting finds are the ones that have a green splat for critics, and a full bucket of popcorn from the audience. And while reviews are opinion to some extent, the site boasts something called Certified Fresh, which brings a little more objectivity to the critique.

If it meets these requirements, it is automatically flagged for review. When the Rotten Tomatoes staff can determine the movie or show is unlikely to fall below these numbers, it achieves its Certified Fresh status.

Because the Rotten Tomatoes ratings system is so general, RT certified fresh consideration gives the site more objective credibility. So, what's the bottom line? With the movie theater business under constant assault from the rise of streaming services, audiences are less and less likely to venture out to the movies. If they do happen to make it outside the house, they'll likely be extra picky about how they spend their money. Will they choose an "untested" wildcard movie or one that has general approval from fans and critics?

The answer is self-evident. On its surface, the Rotten Tomatoes rating system and Tomatometer seem to be a legitimate resource for the discerning consumer. However, there is also a legitimate concern for low-budget indie movies who already have the cards stacked against them in distribution.

Since they don't have the marketing budget of the Hollywood tentpoles, curious moviegoers have little else to go on besides the Tomatometer. These "little fish" movies live or die by this system, which is ultimately opinion-based and subjective.

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Skip to content. What do the Rotten Tomatoes symbols mean? Read on. How Does Rotten Tomatoes Work? Voris, the Rotten Tomatoes vice president, told me that the site is always trying to grapple with this quandary. Critics love movies and want them to be good, and we try to be honest when we see one that we don't measures up. That doesn't mean the audience can't like a movie with a rotten rating, or hate a movie with a fresh rating. It's no insult to critics when audience opinion diverges.

In fact, it makes talking and thinking about movies more interesting. It's helpful to get a quick sense of critical consensus, even if it's somewhat imprecise. Many people use Rotten Tomatoes to get a rough idea of whether critics generally liked a film. And that, frankly, is what makes art, entertainment, and the world at large interesting: Not everyone has the same opinion about everything, because people are not exact replicas of one another. Most critics love arguing about movies, because they often find that disagreeing with their colleagues is what makes their job fun.

A good Rotten Tomatoes score indicates strong critical consensus, and that can be good for smaller films in particular. The result, they hope, is increased interest and ticket sales when the movie opens in other cities. And the more recent The Big Sick became one of last summer's most beloved films, helped along by its 98 percent rating. But a bad score for a small film can help ensure that it will close quickly, or play in fewer cities overall.

Its potential box office earnings, in turn, will inevitably take a hit. A good Rotten Tomatoes score, for example, doesn't necessarily guarantee a film will be a hit. Still, studios certainly seem to believe the score makes a difference. Last summer, studios blamed Rotten Tomatoes scores and by extension, critics when poorly reviewed movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales , Baywatch , and The Mummy performed below expectations at the box office.

The Emoji Movie , for example, was critically panned, garnering an abysmal 6 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. And the more you think about it, the less surprising it is that plenty of people bought tickets to The Emoji Movie in spite of its bad press: It's an animated movie aimed at children that faced virtually no theatrical competition, and it opened during the summer, when kids are out of school. Great reviews might have inflated its numbers, but almost universally negative ones didn't seem to hurt it much.

The Mummy gave Tom Cruise his biggest global opening ever. If there is a Rotten Tomatoes effect, it seems to only extend to the American market. Plenty of people would like you to believe that the weak link between box office earnings and critical opinion proves that critics are at fault for not liking the film, and that audiences are a better gauge of its quality.

Fans LOVE the movie. Huge positive scores. Baywatch ended up with a very comfortably rotten 19 percent Tomatometer score , compared to a just barely fresh 62 percent audience score. We are also a rather reserved and nerdy bunch, not regularly armed with venom and knives.

But somehow, I suspect that younger ticket buyers — an all-important demographic — lacked nostalgia for year-old lifeguard TV show, and thus weren't so sure about seeing Baywatch in the first place. Likewise, I doubt that a majority of Americans were ever going to be terribly interested in the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise which notched a 30 percent Tomatometer score and a 64 percent audience score , especially when they could just watch some other movie.

But with lackluster reviews, the average moviegoer just had no reason to give them a chance. Big studio publicists, however, are paid to convince people to see their films, not to candidly discuss the quality of the films themselves. Consider, for example, the case of the aforementioned Emoji Movie. I and most other critics hoped the movie would be good, as is the case with all movies see. It screened for press on Wednesday night at 5 pm, and then the review embargo lifted at 3 pm the next day — mere hours before the first public showtimes.

Thus, in spite of there being no strong correlation between negative reviews and a low box office, its first-weekend box returns might be less susceptible to any potential harm as a result of bad press. Such close timing can also backfire; critics liked this summer's Captain Underpants , for example, but the film was screened too late for the positive reviews to measurably boost its opening box office.

That first-weekend number is important, because if a movie is the top performer at the box office or if it simply exceeds expectations, like Dunkirk and Wonder Woman did this summer , its success can function as good advertising for the film, which means its second weekend sales may also be stronger.

And that matters , particularly when it means a movie is outperforming its expectations, because it can actually shift the way industry executives think about what kinds of movies people want to watch.

The implication was that Fox believed the movie would be a critical success, and indeed, it was — the movie has a 97 percent Tomatometer score and an 86 percent audience score.

In , Metacritic conducted a study of the correlation between its scores and second weekend sales , and found — not surprisingly — that well-reviewed movies dip much less in the second weekend than poorly reviewed movies.

This is particularly true of movies with a strong built-in fan base, like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , which enjoyed inflated box office returns in the first weekend because fans came out to see it, but dropped sharply in its second weekend, at least partly due to extremely negative press.

Most critics who are serious about their work make a good-faith effort to approach each film they see with as few expectations as possible. But it's hard to have much hope about a movie when it seems obvious that a studio is trying to play keep-away with it.

And the more studios try to game the system by withholding their films from critics, the less critics are inclined to enter a screening devoid of expectations, however subconscious.

If you ask critics what studios ought to do to minimize the potential impact of a low Rotten Tomatoes score, their answer is simple: Make better movies. Hiding a film from critics might artificially inflate first-weekend box office returns, but plenty of people are going to go see a franchise film, or a superhero movie, or a family movie, no matter what critics say. The website is just one piece of the sprawling and often bewildering film landscape.

As box office analyst Scott Mendelson wrote at Forbes :. But it is not magic. At worst, the increased visibility of the site is being used as an excuse by ever-pickier moviegoers to stay in with Netflix or VOD. For audience members who want to make good moviegoing decisions, the best approach is a two-pronged one. First, check Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic to get a sense of critical consensus.

But second, find a few critics — two or three will do — whose taste aligns with or challenges your own, and whose insights help you enjoy a movie even more. Read them and rely on them. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding.

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