Metacritic vs Rotten Tomatoes: Two Different Questions
Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are the two best-known ways to summarize what professional critics think of a film. They are often quoted as if they were interchangeable. They are not, and the difference explains many of the film scores that look contradictory at first glance.
Rotten Tomatoes asks: how many critics liked it?
The Tomatometer is a percentage of reviews that are positive. Each review is classified as either fresh or rotten, and the score is simply the share of fresh ones. A film that every critic found pleasant but unremarkable can reach a very high percentage, because each of those reviews counts as one positive vote no matter how lukewarm it is. The reverse also happens: a film that divides critics sharply, with some calling it a masterpiece and others dismissing it, can sit in the middle even though its fans are passionate.
That makes the Tomatometer a measure of consensus, not of intensity. A 90% does not mean critics rated the film 9 out of 10. It means roughly nine in ten reviewers leaned positive. Rotten Tomatoes also publishes an average rating on a ten-point scale, which is closer to how much critics liked the film, but it is shown less prominently and is often left out when scores are quoted.
Metacritic asks: how much did critics like it?
Metacritic converts each review into a number from 0 to 100 and then combines them into a weighted average. Reviews that already carry a score, such as stars or a rating out of ten, are converted directly. Reviews without a score are read and assigned one by Metacritic's editors. The site does not publish the weights it gives to individual publications, but it has said that some critics and outlets count for more than others.
Because it averages intensity, Metacritic scores tend to cluster in the middle. A film with a 75 is a film that critics rated well on average. Truly high scores are rare, and a score in the 80s or 90s means broad, strong praise. This is also why a Metacritic number looks much lower than a Tomatometer for the same film.
A worked illustration
Imagine ten critics who each give a film a 65 out of 100. On Rotten Tomatoes, most of those reviews would be fresh, so the Tomatometer could show around 100%. On Metacritic, the average is simply 65. Now imagine another film where five critics give a 95 and five give a 30. Metacritic shows a middling 62 or so. The Tomatometer shows about 50%. The two sites agree on the middle but describe very different films: one mildly liked by everyone, the other loved by half and rejected by half.
What this means for a press vs audience gap
When we compare critics to audiences, the choice of critic number matters. Compared with a ten-out-of-ten audience favorite, a Tomatometer of 85% and a Metacritic of 62 describe different distances. That is why Honest Cinema Score shows both and gives Metacritic the higher default weight: it carries more information about how strongly critics felt. The Tomatometer still gets a large share of the weight because it is the figure most readers know, and because a very low percentage is a clear signal that critics rejected the film.
How to use both
- If the Tomatometer is high and Metacritic is only moderate, the film is probably well liked but not a standout. Expect a pleasant film, not a masterpiece.
- If both are high, critics agree strongly. This is the clearest signal of quality in the critic world.
- If the Tomatometer is modest and Metacritic is similar, critics are divided or lukewarm.
- If Metacritic is much lower than the Tomatometer, check the number of reviews. Small review counts make both numbers volatile, especially in the first days after release.
Neither number is the truth. Both are summaries of a sample of critics, and critics are not a random sample of viewers. The right way to use them is to read them next to the audience side, which is what the press vs audience gap is for.