Critics lose more ground as Rotten Tomatoes adds audience-generated "Popcornmeter" badge

The war on professional journalism that gave us TikTokers singing at celebrities on the red carpet (not to mention thousands of layoffs) has now spread to Rotten Tomatoes. The review aggregator just added another vector to its infamous fresh-rotten spectrum, which was previously calculated exclusively from certified critics’ scores. The site’s new, popcorn-themed scale will instead be aggregated from audience ratings, with “Stale” at one end and “Verified Hot” at the other. (The food metaphors are getting a bit unwieldy, but at least angry audiences who wanted to see Hugh Jackman take his shirt off even more in Deadpool & Wolverine aren’t being given tomatoes to throw.)

According to The Hollywood Reporter, for a film to receive an official Verified Hot badge, it needs to receive a “Verified Audience Score of 90 percent or higher” on the Popcornmeter. Movies that score at least 3.5 (out of 5 stars) in 60% of their audience reviews will earn a general “Hot” badge, with films falling below that threshold being marked “Stale.”

For their rating to be verified (and therefore count towards the Popcornmeter), moviegoers must have purchased a ticket to actually see the film from Rotten Tomatoes’ sister site, Fandango. This is probably, partially, an attempt to prevent the sort of generally sexist “review bombing” that has befallen titles like Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters, Captain Marvel, and most recently The Acolyte. Whether this system will be effective in curtailing this gross trend remains to be seen. 

A viral 2023 Vulture article alleged that studios were not only buying positive reviews, but had also figured out how to land “Certified Fresh” ratings from only a handful of critics attending early screenings. Potentially based on that wave of backlash, Rotten Tomatoes is changing how its Tomatometer works as well. Now, if a movie premieres at a festival or is projected to make $60 million or less at the box office, it will need at least 10 reviews before its official score posts. That threshold is raised to 20 reviews if the film makes $60 million to $120 million, and 40 reviews if the box office is over $120 million. This, at least, feels like a real positive change.

In a statement to THR, Fandango senior VP shared, “On Rotten Tomatoes, fans love to consult our verified audience score, in addition to the Tomatometer critics’ score, when discovering new movies and deciding what they want to watch next… With the addition of Verified Hot, we are excited to celebrate and shine a spotlight on the theatrical films that fans have unanimously embraced and have taken the time to share their incredible moviegoing experience with other fans.”

So do these fans actually know what they’re talking about? Here’s a case study: It Ends With Us is currently sitting at 57% (which counts as rotten) on the Tomatometer, but 92% Verified Fresh on the Popcornmeter. (We gave it a “C-“.) We’ll let you decide for yourself.