Nothing prepared me for Rotten Tomatoes cutting off its own lifeline.
This week, without fanfare or a half-decent excuse, Rotten Tomatoes removed all average ratings from its site—including those from critics. Nope, it's not a glitch. Their own FAQ quietly confirmed the change, suggesting it's not a temporary hiccup but a deliberate move.
And if you feel like you've seen this movie before—you have. Think of it like Hollywood's endless reboots: when something inconvenient (like nuanced critical analysis) threatens to complicate a corporate narrative, the studio hits delete.
Average ratings weren't just a nerdy bonus feature. They were the heartbeat of the Tomatometer. While the percentage score tells you if critics gave a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, the average rating revealed how strongly they felt. It showed you whether a film was a unanimous lovefest—or just barely scraping by.
Without it, the Tomatometer becomes a pass/fail machine. Bland. Simplistic. Like grading “Citizen Kane” and “The Garfield Movie” on the same thumbs-up scale.
Was This Another Studio-Driven “Optimization”?
There's a shadow looming over this decision—and it smells suspiciously like studio pressure. After all, Rotten Tomatoes has a history of “adjustments” under outside influence:
- In 2019, they scrapped the “Want to See” score after review bombing tanked early audience perceptions.
- In 2024, they rebranded the audience score into the “Popcornmeter” and invented a “Verified Hot” badge—only awarded if you bought a ticket through their corporate cousin, Fandango.
Now? They're erasing the only metric that actually told you how critics felt.
If you think that's a coincidence, I have a timeshare on Morbius Island to sell you.
Deep Dive: When Transparency Loses to Branding
Historically, the tug-of-war between platforms and transparency isn't new. Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes' quieter, geekier cousin, has always kept the raw scores front and center. That's part of why hardcore cinephiles swear by it.
When Rotten Tomatoes tried to hide TV show scores during its 2024 redesign, users revolted—hard. The site walked it back. Fast.
This time feels different. More permanent. More like an aggressive brand “streamlining” operation than a technical update.
It's like Netflix scrapping star ratings in favor of a meaningless “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down”—because heaven forbid someone think too hard before binging “The Ultimatum: South Africa.”
Rotten Tomatoes wasn't just a marketing tool. It used to be a thermometer for the industry's creative temperature. Now? It's turning into a heat lamp for whatever studios want you to think is “fresh.”
Closing Thought: Would You Trust a Restaurant That Hid Its Yelp Ratings?
If the average critic score disappears forever, we'll be left trusting an all-or-nothing system in a medium built on nuance.
You'll either love this or hate it. Here's why: if Rotten Tomatoes can manipulate what you see based on pressure or optics, what else is quietly getting rewritten?
Drop your take below — would you risk your movie nights on half the story?
