Rotten Tomatoes is often cited as one of the worst aspects of modern film critique. However, it’s just an aggregator. There’s nothing inherently wrong about it. The main issue is that there is no nuance with the Tomatometer. You either like something or you don’t. Fresh or Rotten. Well, it appears Rotten Tomatoes is ready to give a bit more power to regular viewers and add a bit more nuance to the way it showcases film reviews.
For those that aren’t familiar with how this all works, it’s actually quite simple. A film critic gets approved to post reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. They post a quick blurb and offer it a Fresh or Rotten ranking. Hundreds of other critics watch the same movie and do the same ranking. So, if a film is 75% Fresh, that means 75% of the critics said that the film is good. That’s the Tomatometer.
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The Popcornmeter, on the other hand does that same thing but with user reviews. It’s a similar ranking system as critics. A regular person sees a film, goes to Rotten Tomatoes, publishes their quick review, gives it a star rating. Thousands of other people do the same thing. Now, this is where things get a bit more complicated. To get a regular popcorn badge, a film has to earn at least 3.5 stars from more than 60% of viewer reviews. Under 60% and it’s a tipped over popcorn badge. But the new badge is “Verified Hot,” which means a film has a 90% or better with “verified” reviews. Those are folks who can verify they actually saw the film through the Rotten Tomatoes verification system.
Long story short, there’s now a new badge that studios can plaster on marketing materials. For a film like “Deadpool & Wolverine,” it’ll have both Verified Fresh and Verified Hot. But for other films that don’t make the Verified Fresh badge, they could possibly earn Verified Hot if the fans think otherwise. It gives a bit more credence to user reviews, which could be seen as a good thing.
Does this fix Rotten Tomatoes? Not at all. Does it drastically change how films will be reviewed? Nope. And it’s damn sure not going to stop review bombing. But it could be a step in the right direction. We’ll just have to wait and see.