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Against gossip & scandal, independent media network, global stories from local perspective, factual culture news, how to understand rotten tomatoes: an in-depth guide to help you decide what movies to watch next.
Caroline is currently a writer and contributor for Hollywood Insider. She believes in constant critical thinking and applied analysis when it comes to media consumption. Her goal aligns with Hollywood Insider’s mission statement, and she strives to educate readers on the nuances of the entertainment industry and to hopefully encourage them to form their own opinions on the media they consume daily.
Mar 10, 2021
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Photo: Rotten Tomatoes
In 2020 alone, there were more than 320 films released in the United States and Canada. That was with the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent movie theater closures. The year before, there were over 800 films released. With the ever-growing number of films to watch both in theaters and on streaming platforms , it’s becoming a harder decision for viewers to pick what they want to watch. The overwhelming nature of choice has dominated the movie market for years now, but the aim of critical review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes , is to help make that choice a little easier.
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Rotten Tomatoes was launched in August 1998 with the goal of merging critical reviews into an easily-readable and understandable score that viewers could use to determine whether a movie was worth their time or not. It is important to note that, in 2016, Fandango , a movie ticketing company, acquired Rotten Tomatoes and now displays their scores next to films when you’re deciding on which tickets to purchase, so to say that Rotten Tomatoes scores are incredibly influential would be an understatement. They, in front of IMDB , are one of the most trusted sources for accurate, critical ratings on all your favorite movies. But where exactly do all the critical scores come from? And what do they mean? Let’s break it down.
What Are Critical Scores? How Are They Calculated?
When you click on a movie on Rotten Tomatoes, the first thing you see are two independent scores. One signifies an aggregation of critical ratings of a film (the “Tomatometer” ) and the other, denoted by a popcorn bucket, displays audience consensus on a film. In regards to critical reviews, there are three categories that a film can fall under: rotten, fresh, and certified fresh. To put it simply, if a film is marked as “rotten”, it means that under 60% of the total reviewers left a positive review. A positive review is usually marked by a score of 6 or more out of 10, but there is also room for interpretation as to what a positive score can be due to the wide variety of rating systems that critics use.
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Some critics use a letter grade such as “A”, “B”, “C”, or “D” to judge films and others use a rating system out of 4 instead of 10. Ultimately, it falls to the curators of Rotten Tomatoes to clarify whether a review is positive or negative, and categorize it as such. As a side note, the overall percentage that you see at the top of the screen is the total amount of reviewers that scored the film positively. For example, ‘Coming 2 America’ currently holds a critical rating of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that of the 182 reviews, only 52% of them ranked the film positively. Got it? Great, let’s move on. If a film qualifies as “fresh”, that means that more than 60% of reviewers ranked the film positively.
That number increases to 75% or more if a film is “certified fresh”, however, that title is also accompanied by a different set of qualifying rules. For example, the film in question must have been reviewed 80 times or more, as well as have reviews by five of the “top critics” to qualify as certified fresh. But let’s back up even further to examine who these critics are and what qualifying categories they have to meet in order to be accepted into the Rotten Tomatoes club.
Who Are the Critics?
Rotten Tomatoes deems that all critics meet a set of eligibility guidelines that are meant to exemplify that this person or publication is influential (and experienced) enough to write well-articulated reviews. They do this through an application-based system with some of the requirements being: you must have been writing reviews for at least two years that are being published through a non-self-published source, whether that be online or print. For social media influencers, these qualifications are different in that you must have a subscriber count of at least 30,000 to be considered “widespread” enough in your audience scope. To put it simply, most Rotten Tomatoes reviewers are qualified to review films and have already been doing so, consistently, on a different platform.
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Once a critic has been approved to write for Rotten Tomatoes, they either self-submit reviews to the website or continue to publish reviews via the medium they were previously published through. In the case of the latter, Rotten Tomatoes has a team of expert curators determine whether or not the review is “fresh” or “rotten”. This team of curators poses a morally gray area as they introduce a middleman who opens the reviews to the possibility of misinterpretation. Mostly, however, Rotten Tomatoes critics submit scores themselves in order to rule out any areas of miscommunication.
Audience Scores Versus Critical Scores: Different Guidelines
Let’s switch gears a bit to talk about what an audience score is and what it means. Similarly to critical scores, the percentage at the top of the page (next to the popcorn bucket) represents the overall number of audience members who gave a film a positive review. However, it’s important to note that audience reviews have a different rating system than those described for critics, one that is universal and easier to aggregate. All audience reviews must score the film in question out of 5 stars. This shifts the rating system to a 3.5 out of 5 counting as a positive review while anything below that counts as a negative review. In this instance, and throughout this article, I’ve been using “positive” and “fresh” interchangeably as well as “negative” and “rotten” interchangeably too. Just a side note for anyone who feels confused! Luckily, the rest of the audience rating system is easier to digest. There’s a full popcorn bucket for any film that receives 60% or higher positive reviews from audience members while a spilled popcorn bucket denotes a film where less than 60% of reviewers scored the film positively.
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How You Can Use Rotten Tomatoes in Your Everyday Life
Okay, so now that I just rattled off a bunch of confusing numbers and percentages to you, let’s talk about why you should care. The main takeaway I hope you have from this article is that Rotten Tomatoes, at its core, is a review aggregator, which means that ultimately those percentages you see at the top of the screen are general estimates meant to give you an overall idea of what critics think about this film. Obviously, films with higher scores that are certified fresh, and films that fall to the other extreme of the rotten scale, are easier to judge because critical consensus is more unanimous. However, all these gray areas and film critics opinions shouldn’t matter to you unless you know for certain that you like their opinions. If you are a more traditional cinephile, aka a fan of the Criterion collection or HBOMax’s lineup, then you will probably benefit from looking at solely critical scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
For example, ‘L’Avventura’ directed by Michaelangelo Antonini in 1960, has a critical score of 94%, but an audience score of 88%. In a more abstract sense, if you prefer fun, entertaining blockbusters like the majority of the general public, you may not like this film as much as the professional critics who rated it very highly. At the end of the day, Rotten Tomatoes is in no way, shape, or form a Bible that determines a film’s quality. It is best used in a subjective way that accounts for nuances and personal taste. However, in this time of ever-growing film releases via all sorts of platforms, it can be helpful to look at a number and use it to make a quick judgment of a film before you dedicate an hour or more of your life to it.
By Caroline Adamec
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Caroline is currently a writer and contributor for Hollywood Insider. She believes in constant critical thinking and applied analysis when it comes to media consumption. Her goal aligns with Hollywood Insider's mission statement, and she strives to educate readers on the nuances of the entertainment industry and to hopefully encourage them to form their own opinions on the media they consume daily.
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Screen Rant
The idea of you's rotten tomatoes score reveals a harsh reality of anne hathaway's 23-year career.
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How Old Are Anne Hathaway & Nicholas Galitzine? The Idea Of You's Age-Gap Explained
10 worst castings in marvel movies, ranked, moana live-action movie set photos reveal first look at dwayne johnson's fully tatted & long-haired maui.
- Anne Hathaway has achieved a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% with The Idea of You .
- This success points out a discrepancy in the star's career, as just over a third of her movies have earned Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores.
- Hathaway's highest-rated film is 89%, but she lacks any movie with a score of 90% or above.
The Rotten Tomatoes score for The Idea of You exposes a harsh truth about Anne Hathaway's 23-year career. Hathaway stars in the Prime Video age-gap romance movie as single mother Solène Marchand opposite Red, White, & Royal Blue 's Nicholas Galitzine as boy band lead singer Hayes Campbell, a figure loosely inspired by One Direction superstar Harry Styles. The movie, which was directed and co-written by Wet Hot American Summer star and The Big Sick director Michael Showalter, is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Robinne Lee.
The Idea of You star has been performing in movies since she was a teenager . After getting her start in young adult-oriented titles such as The Princess Diaries , its sequel The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement , and Ella Enchanted , she has taken on a number of roles in prominent titles. This includes a series of romantic comedies including Love & Other Drugs and Bride Wars , blockbuster franchise movies such as The Dark Knight Rises and Ocean's 8 , and dramas like Les Misérables , for which she won her first Oscar. However, Rotten Tomatoes exposes an unfortunate truth about her career.
Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine star in the age-gap romantic comedy movie The Idea of You, but how old are they compared to their characters?
The Idea Of You's Rotten Tomatoes Score Explained
Critics are enjoying anne hathaway's new romance.
At the time of writing, The Idea of You reviews have been almost entirely positive, giving the movie a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% . While the score could still fluctuate as more reviews are added, 94 critics have already weighed in, giving the movie a statistically significant score that allowed the review aggregator service to determine that it is solidly Fresh. The movie has been praised for its tactful management of potentially controversial subject matter, its sincere approach to the central romance, and Anne Hathaway's performance in particular.
Throughout the week of its release, The Idea of You 's Rotten Tomatoes score fluctuated between 82% and 88%.
At 83%, the movie ranks as the sixth best-reviewed movie in Hathaway's entire career . It has landed exactly between her under-the-radar 2016 kaiju comedy Colossal and the 2008 Jonathan Demme title Rachel Getting Married , for which she was nominated for her first Oscar. Below, see a breakdown of her Top 10 highest-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes, with the exception of the 2013 feature Girl Rising (80%), a documentary that she narrated:
Anne Hathaway Doesn't Have Any Movies At 90% Or Above On Rotten Tomatoes (But Should)
The idea of you star has never climbed higher than 89%.
With her highest-rated movie being 2019's Dark Waters at 89%, Anne Hathaway has never climbed above 90% on Rotten Tomatoes despite starring in many well-regarded movies. The same is true of her television appearances, as her highest score on that end comes from her voice role on The Simpsons , an iconic animated show that has an average score of 85%. In comparison, nearly every other major cast member of the movie has at least one title at 90% or above, including Nicholas Galitzine's Bottoms (90%), Reid Scott's I'll See You in My Dreams (93%), and Annie Mumolo's Joy Ride (90%).
This statistic comes as something of a surprise considering how many iconic movies Hathaway has starred in. In addition to being recognizable titles, many of them have been nominated for or have won Oscars including The Devil Wears Prada (75%) and Interstellar (73%). In fact, 2005's Brokeback Mountain , which only holds an 88% score on the platform, won three Oscars and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture.
Anne Hathaway Has More Rotten Movies Than Fresh Ones On Rotten Tomatoes
Just over a third of anne hathaway movies are fresh.
Overall, of the 41 movies with Anne Hathaway performances that have received critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes, only 15 of them have been deemed Fresh , with the remaining 26 all earning Rotten scores. This means that only 36.6% of her movies, just over one-third, have been well-received critically. Part of this can be attributed to some of the choices the star and her management team have made, including starring in widely panned titles such as Bride Wars (10%), Valentine's Day (18%), and Alice Through the Looking Glass (29%), which have Rotten scores from both critics and audiences on the platform.
Some Anne Hathaway titles have been severely underrated by critics.
However, the audience scores for some of her Rotten movies may prove that some Anne Hathaway titles have been severely underrated by critics. Rotten movies that audiences liked include The Other Side of Heaven (30%), The Princess Diaries (49%), Get Smart (51%), Becoming Jane (58%), and The Intern (59%). Although the positive score for The Idea of You highlights this discrepancy in her career, it could also be an indication that better things are yet to come for the star, who is currently attached to upcoming titles including Mother Mary and Flowervale Street that may eventually earn 90% or more.
Click here to watch The Idea of You on Prime Video
The Idea of You
Based on the acclaimed, contemporary love story of the same name, The Idea of You centers on Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. When Solène must step in to chaperone her teenage daughter’s trip to the Coachella Music Festival after her ex bails at the last minute, she has a chance encounter with Hayes and there is an instant, undeniable spark. As they begin a whirlwind romance, it isn’t long before Hayes’ superstar status poses unavoidable challenges to their relationship, and Solène soon discovers that life in the glare of his spotlight might be more than she bargained for.
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