On the afternoon of May 2, critic Courtney Howard posted to X that Rotten Tomatoes informed her they would be reversing the lower placement of critic reviews.
You must have done this at least once: You’re curious to see how the reception of a new blockbuster movie was, so you take a quick look atRotten Tomatoesto see its average score. If it’s below 50%, you decide that maybe you’re able to wait to watch it at home later. If it’s higher than that, you start considering the possibility ofchecking it out on the big screen. If it’s up to Google and Rotten Tomatoes themselves, though, you’ll lean towards the latter decision a lot more often from now on. Users realized that a new change in the platform’s algorithmprioritizes the audience scoreand shows it by default when you search for the title of a movie, as opposed to showing the critics’ score as it did previously.
At the same time, the new development fuels the possibility of audiences manipulating the perception of a particular movie by bomb-reviewing at Rotten Tomatoes. Back in 2019,Captain Marvelbecame famously ill-rated by audiences due to the fact that a portion of moviegoers considered it to be the kind of movie thatpushed forward the “woke agenda.”TheBrie Larson-led blockbuster is currently “rotten” with a 45% approval rate from the audience score, while the critics’ score is pretty high at 79%. If fans or haters start taking advantage of the new change — and if Google will address it — remains to be seen. Users have also reported that, in some browsers, the Rotten Tomatoes website has either forced users to click a link to find out a critics' score for a movie or scrolling all the way down to find it, which may underscore what is the platform’s ultimate goal with the changes.
The Website’s System Was Rotten From The Start
The issues with Rotten Tomatoes’ scoresfar predate the most recent changes. Critics and journalists have long complained that the website’s binary system (Fresh x Rotten) of rating eliminates the nuance from the conversations around movies. The website’s algorithmqualifies both critics’ and audiences’ reviewsas either “good” or “bad,” which blatantly ignores the fact that a review might cover both aspects of a movie.
We can’t ignore, though, that Rotten Tomatoes is not the cause of the reduction ofnuanced conversations around art and culture, but rather a product of it. Google’s recent change is just the latest of a series that prioritize at-a-glance information that’s designed to cater to readers’ ever-reducing attention span while online. At the same time,as some users have already pointed out, the change in how Google shows the movie score can punish filmmakers whose work tends to be polarizing. For example, if a movie has a high critics' rating and a pretty low audience score (or vice versa), chances are you’ll be at least curious to find out why there’s such a disparity. Erasing or omitting critics' voices is certainly not the way to stimulate that curiosity.
Rotten Tomatoes Will Put Critic Reviews Back on Top
According to critic Courtney Howard, an email she received on the afternoon of May 2and posted to Xindicated that Rotten Tomatoes was no longer going ahead with the lower placement of critic reviews. The site’s reply to Howard read:
“Thank you again for reaching out regarding the recent layout changes being tested on the Rotten Tomatoes movie and TV pages, and the placement of critic reviews. Please know that our team deeply values the critics community whose reviews are at the core of Rotten Tomatoes and have been for over 25 years. The testing in no way signals that Rotten Tomatoes is deprioritizing the critic reviews that make up our Tomatometer scores. Immediately upon the rollout of this test, our team quickly identified the issue, and I’m happy to report that our team is in the process of restoring the placement of critic reviews more prominently on the movie and TV pages. You should begin to see that change as early as next week.
We sincerely apologize for any frustration or inconvenience this may have caused. Again, we greatly value our relationship with all critics and remain committed to amplifying entertainment criticism and supporting rising voices in the community.”
