When determining whether a film is worth seeing, many people, including myself, look online first to see the Rotten Tomatoes score. Especially when planning an outing to the theater where one may spend over ten dollars to see a movie, it seems like a good idea to check what the rest of the world thinks of it. However, we rarely stop and question if Rotten Tomatoes even gives the "better" movies, higher ratings. Recently, that has changed and people have questioned it, particularly due to the extremely low rating given to the highly-anticipated "Suicide Squad." Now we're asking, "Should we trust Rotten Tomatoes?"
In order to answer that questions, one must first think about what Rotten Tomatoes is and how it determines its ratings. According to itself, Rotten Tomatoes ratings show "the percentage of positive professional reviews for films and TV shows..." As for what constitutes a "professional review," Rotten Tomatoes gives a detailed list of criteria which is rather complicated but ultimately comes down to a review that is published in "a top 100 daily US newspaper," "a top 100 weekly US newspaper," "a top 100 magazine," "a top ten entertainment-based publication," "a national TV or radio outlet," or must be from a website that receives "500,000 unique monthly visitors." There are some specific exceptions though. Critics, for the most part, need to have been actively employed by one of these publications for at least two years to be considered. In short, Rotten Tomatoes clearly cares more about prestige than merit when determining what ratings are consider. One could argue though, that these publications and critics prestige is based in previously established merit. Regardless, the people that contribute to the rating do not represent the common man but rather a very specialized group.
Rotten Tomatoes also features an audience score. This is also a percentage, this time of the "Flixster.com and RottenTomatoes.com users who have rated the movie or TV show positively." More clearly stated as the rating given to a film by anyone whom cares enough to write a review that will most likely never be read. This seems slightly more similar to the common man but not the same, for the common man would probably not spend their time writing a film review. Presumably, this score is determined by people that felt very strongly about a film (strong enough to take the time to write a review), either positively or negatively.
So, the question returns: should Rotten Tomatoes be trusted? I think that is something everyone has to decide on their own, but in the end, does it really matter?
