Rotten Tomatoes scoring system has been the subject of major fights between the Marvel and DC fandoms. Allegations have been lobbied from both sides that Rotten Tomatoes is biased. But with the release of Joker, it looks like they could be some truth to the statement. How? Lets find out:
How Does Rotten Tomatoes Work?
Rotten Tomatoes works differently from other review aggregator sites. Pic courtesy: variety.comUnlike other kinds of review aggregation platforms like Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer measures based what the film critics like or dislike. Any movie with a higher than 60% score gets a fresh rating. Also, any movie over 75% is certified as Fresh. But there’s more to how it works.It should be kept in mind that review scores themselves also determine whether or not the Tomatometer will be positive or negative. But this number is hidden from the actual aggregate score. From the Rotten Tomatoes number, the review score which critics have assigned are also not easily found. This in turn negatively impacts the movies, at least in some regards.
Joker’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Seems Biased
Many fans have alleged that Joker’s Rotten Tomatoes score is being tanked by the site itself. Pic courtesy: comicbookmovie.comJoker’s early reactions have been overwhelmingly positive and moreover, it has also won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. While early, but it stands to say that it will be a contender for Best Picture at the Oscars. But its Rotten Tomatoes Score tells a different story.After its Venice premiere Joker had an 86% score based on 49 reviews. It had an average rating of 8.66 out of 10 which is great too. But if one looks at just the Top Critics, then the movie is “rotten” there with a 45% score out of 11 reviews. These includes 5 fresh and 6 rotten reviews. Out of these 11 reviews, Joker has an average rating of 7.2/10. This simply means that a movie which is rated over 7 out of 10 has been aggregated to be under 50%.
This situation has only worsened after the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of the movie. This is because the disparity from Top Critics has only grown.
There is also the fact that Rotten Tomatoes also heavily skews controversial or divisive movies negatively even though the reviews aren’t too bad. Rotten Tomatoes recently attempted to fix their Audience Score but it looks like a lot more kinks have to be ironed out along with that.
If you want to know more about how Rotten Tomatoes works, then check out the video below:
