(5 minute read)
Did you know there are 3 Tiers when it comes to movie ratings on Rotten Tomatoes? 1) Certified Fresh, 2) Fresh, and 3) Rotten.
While many reviewers conduct average ratings on a 1 to 5 scale (Facebook) or a 1 to 10 scale (IMDB), Rotten Tomatoes uses a "Tomatometer", which combines Fresh Reviews and Rotten Reviews to determine a percentage score.
Founded by UC Berkeley graduates in 1998, the website is simply a gatherer of reviews. Someone will mark a movie as "Fresh", to mean they liked the movie, while marking it as "Rotten" just means the opposite.
The Tomatometer is a percentage of Fresh Reviews against Total Reviews, where Total Reviews is the sum of Fresh Reviews + Rotten Reviews.
If we take A Star is Born (2019) and look it up on RT right now, I can see they have an 89% Tomatometer score. I'll show you how they reached that number.
There are 468 Critic reviews based on 418 Fresh reviews and 50 Rotten Reviews. All we do is divide 418 (Fresh) by 468 (All Critics) and get 89.3% or 89% rounded down. That's all it is. Pretty simple and trustworthy when hundreds of critics give their opinion.
1) Above 75% on the Tomatometer
2) Have at least 5 reviews from Top Critics*
3) Have at least... 80 total reviews if it's a wide release OR at least 40 total reviews if it's a limited release OR at least 20 total reviews if it's a single TV show season
*Top Critics have a star next to their names in the comments and are approved by Rotten Tomatoes. Top Critics must be able to make consistent reviews, follow RT's values, and typically belong to a bona fide publisher like NPR or the New Yorker.
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You should ALWAYS use good judgment when evaluating movies based on Rotten Tomatoes' reviews. A newly released film labeled "Fresh" with an 80% rating might not be an 80% in your eyes. It could be better or worse and that number may be based on 4 critics that liked it and 1 critic that didn't like it. Go to my IMDB Analysis post to learn how to best evaluate movies using my favorite and most trusted database.
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Happy Movie Hunting! Bookmark this blog for more insights coming soon.
Did you know there are 3 Tiers when it comes to movie ratings on Rotten Tomatoes? 1) Certified Fresh, 2) Fresh, and 3) Rotten.
While many reviewers conduct average ratings on a 1 to 5 scale (Facebook) or a 1 to 10 scale (IMDB), Rotten Tomatoes uses a "Tomatometer", which combines Fresh Reviews and Rotten Reviews to determine a percentage score.
Founded by UC Berkeley graduates in 1998, the website is simply a gatherer of reviews. Someone will mark a movie as "Fresh", to mean they liked the movie, while marking it as "Rotten" just means the opposite.
The Tomatometer is a percentage of Fresh Reviews against Total Reviews, where Total Reviews is the sum of Fresh Reviews + Rotten Reviews.
If we take A Star is Born (2019) and look it up on RT right now, I can see they have an 89% Tomatometer score. I'll show you how they reached that number.
There are 468 Critic reviews based on 418 Fresh reviews and 50 Rotten Reviews. All we do is divide 418 (Fresh) by 468 (All Critics) and get 89.3% or 89% rounded down. That's all it is. Pretty simple and trustworthy when hundreds of critics give their opinion.
In order for a movie or television season to receive that Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes Score, it needs to be...
1) Above 75% on the Tomatometer
2) Have at least 5 reviews from Top Critics*
3) Have at least... 80 total reviews if it's a wide release OR at least 40 total reviews if it's a limited release OR at least 20 total reviews if it's a single TV show season
*Top Critics have a star next to their names in the comments and are approved by Rotten Tomatoes. Top Critics must be able to make consistent reviews, follow RT's values, and typically belong to a bona fide publisher like NPR or the New Yorker.
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For a movie or TV show to receive a normal Fresh score, it needs to be above 60% with at least 5 critic reviews, not necessarily Top Critics.
--------------------For a movie or TV show to receive a Rotten score or a green SPLAT, it will have a score below 60% based on at least 5 critic reviews.
--------------------You should ALWAYS use good judgment when evaluating movies based on Rotten Tomatoes' reviews. A newly released film labeled "Fresh" with an 80% rating might not be an 80% in your eyes. It could be better or worse and that number may be based on 4 critics that liked it and 1 critic that didn't like it. Go to my IMDB Analysis post to learn how to best evaluate movies using my favorite and most trusted database.
-------------------
Happy Movie Hunting! Bookmark this blog for more insights coming soon.