Rotten Tomatoes
The website launched on the 12th of August 1998 as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. He was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley when he began coding the site in just two weeks. His goal was to create a place where people could access reviews from various critics across the United States. The catalyst for this creation was Jackie Chan's film Rush Hour which originally planned to release in August 1998. Although the movie delayed until September 1998, the site went live that same month. It attracted between 600 and 1,000 daily unique visitors within its first week alone. Duong later teamed up with classmates Patrick Y. Lee and Stephen Wang to pursue the project full time. They officially relaunched the platform on the 1st of April 2000 after expanding beyond just Chan films. Their first non-Chan Hollywood movie featured on the site was Your Friends & Neighbors released in 1998.
In June 2004 IGN Entertainment acquired Rotten Tomatoes for an undisclosed sum. This acquisition placed the site under Fox Interactive Media ownership following News Corp's purchase of IGN in September 2005. By January 2010 IGN sold the website to Flixster. Warner Bros. then acquired Rotten Tomatoes in 2011 while retaining a minority stake in the merged entities. In February 2016 Comcast's Fandango Media purchased both Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster. The company moved operations to Fox Interactive Media's former headquarters in Beverly Hills, California by December 2016. Matt Atchity served as editor-in-chief from 2007 until July 2017 when he left to join The Young Turks YouTube channel. Jacqueline Coley and Segun Oduolowu hosted a new web series called See It/Skip It launched the 1st of November 2017 on Facebook.
Rotten Tomatoes staff collect reviews from writers certified by various writing guilds or film critic associations. Critics must mark their review as fresh if generally favorable or rotten otherwise since some lack numeric scores. The system calculates the percentage of positive reviews known as the Tomatometer score. Films with 60% or more positive reviews are considered fresh while those below 60% receive a rotten designation. A Certified Fresh seal requires a Tomatometer of 75% or better plus at least 80 reviews including five Top Critics for wide releases. Limited release films need only 40 reviews meeting the same criteria. The threshold changes depending on projected box office figures provided by independent outside sources. Movies projected to make over $120 million require 40 critic reviews before displaying any Tomatometer score. Those expected between $60 million and $120 million need 20 reviews minimum. Films under $60 million or lacking projections require just 10 reviews to qualify.
Each movie features an audience average called the Popcornmeter calculating percentages of registered users rating films positively on a five-star scale. For this score to display, films must meet specific audience review thresholds based on projected U.S. box office performance. Movies projected above $120 million require 500 audience reviews while those between $60 million and $120 million need 300 reviews. Projections of $5 million or higher demand 100 reviews minimum. Films under $5 million or without projections require just 50 reviews. On the 24th of May 2019 Rotten Tomatoes introduced verified ratings replacing earlier systems requiring mere registration. Users now verify ticket purchases through Fandango Media to have their reviews count toward displayed averages. the 21st of August 2024 saw the introduction of a Verified Hot badge for films achieving 90% or higher among verified purchasers. Over 200 films received this designation retroactively upon its creation since May 2019 launch of verified audience ratings. The site also added an Audience Says section in February 2021 combining with Critics Consensus blurbs for at-a-glance summaries.
Major Hollywood studios view Rotten Tomatoes as a potential threat to their marketing strategies. In 2017 several blockbuster films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales opened with gross receipts far below projections despite expected numbers near $90 million. That same summer Wonder Woman and Spider-Man Homecoming both scored 92% and exceeded expectations with over $100 million openings. A 2015 study commissioned by 20th Century Fox stated that combined with social media the website would become increasingly serious complications for film business. Research found seven out of ten people less interested seeing films if scores fell below 25%. Scores regularly appear in Google search results prominently featured on Fandango's ticket purchasing platform and mobile apps. Some studios embargoed early critic screenings responding to poor reviews affecting pre-sales and opening weekend numbers. Sony Pictures withheld reviews for The Emoji Movie until mid-day Thursday before release resulting in a 9% rating yet still opening to $24 million. Warner Bros. similarly avoided pre-screenings for The House which held 16% until release day but opened to just $8.7 million.
In January 2010 New York Film Critics Circle chairman Armond White cited Rotten Tomatoes as examples of how internet takes revenge on individual expression. He argued such websites offer consensus as substitute for assessment while dumping reviewers onto one site assigning spurious percentage-enthusiasm points. Director Brett Ratner criticized reducing hundreds of reviews into popularized aggregate scores while expressing respect for traditional critics. Writer Max Landis wrote after Victor Frankenstein received 24% approval that the site breaks down entire reviews into yes or no making criticism binary in destructive arbitrary way. Vulture ran an article September 2023 raising criticisms about ease large companies manipulate reviewer ratings citing publicity company Bunker 15 recruiting obscure self-published reviewers. American director Martin Scorsese wrote criticizing both Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScore promoting idea films must be instantly liked to succeed. Actress Meryl Streep accused the platform disproportionately representing male film critic opinions during Suffragette promotion in 2015 resulting skewed ratios affecting female-driven films commercial performances. The New York Times aggregated statistics showing public rates movies more positively than critics except black comedies and documentaries where critics systematically rate higher.
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Common questions
When did Rotten Tomatoes launch and who created it?
Rotten Tomatoes launched on the 12th of August 1998 as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. He was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley when he began coding the site in just two weeks.
How does Rotten Tomatoes determine if a movie is fresh or rotten?
The system calculates the percentage of positive reviews known as the Tomatometer score to determine film status. Films with 60% or more positive reviews are considered fresh while those below 60% receive a rotten designation.
What happened to Rotten Tomatoes ownership after 2004?
In June 2004 IGN Entertainment acquired Rotten Tomatoes for an undisclosed sum. Warner Bros. then acquired Rotten Tomatoes in 2011 while retaining a minority stake in the merged entities before Comcast's Fandango Media purchased both Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster in February 2016.
Why do major Hollywood studios view Rotten Tomatoes negatively?
Major Hollywood studios view Rotten Tomatoes as a potential threat to their marketing strategies because research found seven out of ten people less interested seeing films if scores fell below 25%. Some studios embargoed early critic screenings responding to poor reviews affecting pre-sales and opening weekend numbers.
When did Rotten Tomatoes introduce verified audience ratings?
On the 24th of May 2019 Rotten Tomatoes introduced verified ratings replacing earlier systems requiring mere registration. Users now verify ticket purchases through Fandango Media to have their reviews count toward displayed averages.