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The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes has overhauled its rating system with an important innovation.
The popular platform aggregates reviews from critics and the general public to assign an overall percentage to films and television shows.
Traditionally, the site’s focus is on critics’ reviews, with films classified as “fresh” or “bad” depending on how many positive reviews they receive.
However, Rotten Tomatoes has now introduced a new designation in which films are labeled as “Verified Hot,” “Hot,” or “Stale” depending on the feedback from the “Verified Audience.”
The “Verified Hot” award is only given to films that receive a 90 percent positive rating from users who attended the screening.
Rotten Tomatoes is owned by the US ticket platform Fandango, through which the website determines who actually bought tickets for the film in question. According to IndieWireThe site is also currently working with other ticketing websites to verify users who purchased their tickets elsewhere.
In the past, the site’s rating system has been vulnerable to manipulation, with some films being deliberately bombarded with a barrage of negative reviews in an attempt to drive down their ratings (a practice known as “review bombing”).
Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Deadpool and Wolverine, TwistersAnd It ends with usare among the summer releases to receive the new “Verified Hot” badge, with hundreds of older films from 2019 also retroactively receiving the designation.
These include films such as Top Shooter: Maverick, parasite, OppenheimerAnd Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Films must achieve a positive rating of 90 percent to be included in the “Verified Hot” category, with the line between “stale” and “hot” being 60 percent.
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“At Rotten Tomatoes, fans love to consult our verified audience scores in addition to the Tomatometer critic score when discovering new movies and deciding what to watch next,” said Amanda Norvell, senior vice president of direct-to-consumer services at Fandango.
“With the inclusion of Verified Hot, we are excited to celebrate and spotlight the films that have been unanimously embraced by fans who have taken the time to share their incredible cinematic experience with other fans.”
However, reactions to the change on social media were mixed, with some fans saying the new emphasis on publicity devalues the site’s original purpose.
“The worst thing Rotten Tomatoes has done is gradually give more importance to audience ratings alongside critic ratings. That was never the intention of this site,” someone wrote on X/Twitter.
“If there’s one thing a site supposedly aimed at film critics needs, it’s more satisfaction for audiences who have reviewed bad movies and TV shows in the past,” commented another.
“This sucks. More incentive for idiots to screw up reviews/boost audience ratings,” wrote another, while yet another noted, “This is like an entry prize for people who complain about entry prizes and have bad taste in movies.”
Others, however, were more optimistic. One person commented, “I LOVE this and they needed something like this. Too often there are fantastic movies that people love but get a terrible rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This will definitely help even out the uneven ratings that often happen.”
