RT: all is not what it seems

17.12.2021 20:13 UTC+01:00
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screenshot of Rotten Tomatoes scores for Spiderman No Way Home

There seems to be some confusion, at least among commentators on social media, as to what the Rotten Tomatoes audience score means. Take, for instance, YellowFlash discussing the 99% score for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Two days ago I made a video saying that the reviews were suspect, because well it was at 99%. Which, honestly, a comic book movie shouldn't get a 10 out of 10. That's reserved for like, in my opinion, movies like The Godfather, and so on.

YellowFlash 2, I was WRONG about Spider-Man No Way Home!

screenshot of Rotten Tomatoes audience scores explanation: The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. This is not intended to dunk on the Flashman. He's not alone in labouring under this misconception. It's cropped up many times before.

And that's because the audience score is counter-intuitive. It's not the audience's average rating, which would be the obvious conclusion, and the reason that a lot of people draw it. Instead, it's the percentage of the audience that rates the film 3.5/5 or more.

So, the audience score for Spider-Man: No Way Home does not mean that it's rated at 99%. What it means is that 99% of the audience gave it at least 7/10.

Confusing? Yes, and I think unnecessarily so. (pipe)

graphical representation of RT 90% audience scores — A number hides a thousand words. All three graphs represent a 90% RT audience score. The average ratings are (L–R): 6.7; 7.8; and 9.3.

I haven't watched a Spider-Man film since the Spider-Man 3 dance incident. And, personally, I don't think that Spiderman should be hyphenated, the same as Batman and Superman. But, whatever.