Rotten Tomatoes' Widest Critic-Audience Divides: From 'The Last Jedi' to 'Venom'
Rotten Tomatoes measures two distinct ratings: the Tomatometer, which reflects professional critiques, and the audience score derived from registered viewers. This report examines ten films that exhibit notable discrepancies between these scores. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" (2017) boasts a Tomatometer in the low 90s, contrasting with an audience score in the low 40s. "Ghostbusters" (2016) has a Tomatometer in the 70s, but its audience score falls below 50. "mother!" (2017) received a critics' score in the high 60s alongside a low 40s audience rating. "Noah" (2014) features a Tomatometer in the high 70s and an audience score in the high 40s. "Venom" (2018) presents a Tomatometer near 30, yet its audience score exceeds 80. "Suicide Squad" (2016) has a mid-20s Tomatometer and a near 60 audience score. "Batman v Superman" (2016) sits in the high 20s for critics and 60s for audiences. "Justice League" (2017) shows a Tomatometer around 40 and an audience score close to 70. "Passengers" (2016) is rated in the low 30s by critics and low 60s by viewers. Finally, "Vice" (2018) has a critics' score of about two-thirds and an audience score in the mid-40s. These instances illustrate that a single percentage often does not fully represent a film's overall reception.
Key facts
- Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive professional reviews, while the audience score reflects registered user ratings.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi has a Tomatometer in the low 90s and an audience score in the low 40s, with Mark Hamill publicly disagreeing with Luke Skywalker's portrayal.
- Ghostbusters (2016) faced pre-release backlash, including the most disliked movie trailer on YouTube at the time, and Leslie Jones was harassed on Twitter, leading to Milo Yiannopoulos's ban.
- mother! received an F CinemaScore and was marketed as a home-invasion thriller, mismatching its allegorical content.
- Venom earned a Tomatometer near 30 but an audience score above 80, grossing over $850 million and spawning two sequels.
- Justice League's troubled production involved Zack Snyder's departure and Joss Whedon's reshoots, including the digital removal of Henry Cavill's mustache; a fan campaign led to Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2021.
- Vice received eight Academy Award nominations and won for makeup and hairstyling, but its audience score was in the mid-40s.
- In 2019, Rotten Tomatoes overhauled its audience system, adding verified ratings and removing pre-release user comments.
Entities
Artists
- Rian Johnson
- Mark Hamill
- Kelly Marie Tran
- Paul Feig
- Melissa McCarthy
- Kristen Wiig
- Kate McKinnon
- Leslie Jones
- Chris Hemsworth
- Milo Yiannopoulos
- Jason Reitman
- Ivan Reitman
- Darren Aronofsky
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Javier Bardem
- Ed Harris
- Michelle Pfeiffer
- Russell Crowe
- Tom Hardy
- Riz Ahmed
- Andy Serkis
- Woody Harrelson
- David Ayer
- Will Smith
- Margot Robbie
- Jai Courtney
- Viola Davis
- Cara Delevingne
- Jared Leto
- James Gunn
- Chris Terrio
- David S. Goyer
- Ben Affleck
- Gal Gadot
- Zack Snyder
- Joss Whedon
- Henry Cavill
- Jason Momoa
- Ezra Miller
- Ray Fisher
- Morten Tyldum
- Jon Spaihts
- Chris Pratt
- Michael Sheen
- Thomas Newman
- Adam McKay
- Christian Bale
- Amy Adams
- Sam Rockwell
- Steve Carell
- Dick Cheney
- Lynne Cheney
- George W. Bush
- Donald Rumsfeld
- Frank Miller
Institutions
- Rotten Tomatoes
- Lucasfilm
- Sony
- Paramount
- Warner Bros.
- DC Extended Universe
- HBO Max
- WarnerMedia
- Breitbart
- CinemaScore
- Academy Awards
- Golden Globe
- Billboard 200
Locations
- Ahch-To
- Canto Bight
- United States
Sources
- Quartz —