Rotten Tomatoes
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| File:Rotten Tomatoes Logo.jpg | |
| The front page of RottenTomatoes.com | |
Type of site | Online movie and video game reviews |
|---|---|
| Owner | IGN |
| Created by | Senh Duong |
| URL | http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of movies and video games. The name derives from the vaudeville-era cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad. The website created a distinctive means to summarize the general critical opinions about these works.
Description
The Rotten Tomatoes staff search the Internet for as many websites as possible that contain reviews of particular films and games; from the amateur to the professional. Once found, the staff uses the aggregate data to determine if the review is positive ("fresh", marked by a small icon of a red tomato) or negative ("rotten", marked by a small icon of a green splatted tomato).
The website keeps track of all of the reviews counted (which can approach 200 for major films) and the percentage of positive reviews is tabulated. If the positive reviews make up 60% or more, the film is considered "fresh" in that a supermajority of the reviewers approve of the film. Conversely, if the positive reviews are less than 60%, then the film is considered "rotten." In addition, major film reviewers like Roger Ebert are listed in a sub-listing called "Cream of the Crop" which tabulates their reviews separately, while still including their opinions in the general rating. When there are sufficient reviews to form a conclusion, a consensus statement is posted which is intended to articulate the general reasons for the opinion. This rating in turn is marked with an equivalent icon when the film is listed, giving the reader a one glance look at the general critical opinion about the work.
As of October 2006, the best reviewed film on the site is Toy Story 2 receiving 105 reviews, all of which are fresh and having an average rating of 8.6. Conversely, there are over 200 films that have so far received a 0% freshness rating.
In 2004, the website IGN Entertainment acquired Rottentomatoes.com. In September 2005, IGN was bought out by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The site is one of the most heavily trafficked on the Internet, with an Alexa Internet ranking of 660 (as of July 24, 2006) and between 60–120 million page views per day.
In November 2006, Rotten Tomatoes launched a UK version of its site; a copy of the main site with new editorial targetted at UK users and a wider selection of UK critics.
Notable for its use by the media for quantifying the cultural impact of cinema.
At least one major newspaper, the Toronto Star, regularly publishes the ratings in its weekly entertainment section.
Discussion board
Rotten Tomatoes contains a large and diverse "forum" section used by a large number of recurring internet posters. There is a main section dedicated to film criticism where numerous contests are held, and several other smaller forums for video game discussion, critical arguments, and off-topic discussion.
The message boards, like those at The Tucker Max Message Boards, are heavily moderated. The main traffic of the message boards flow from two main groups: General Discussion--where the happenings are mostly film/tv related content--and Off Topic--where posters post about their upcoming circumcisions and about their lack of 1337 skills with the ladies.
In both "sub communities", the chief Rotten Tomatoes moderator, RT-Matt, disallows any sort of constructive criticism against the site or himself. Unfortunately, most threads are deleted, and as such, citing the incidents are an exercise in futility. The forum has recently added a lot of imposing pop-up ads, which posters are not allowed to be post about any work around solutions to remove them from "popping up". Also, RT-Matt removed the main General Discussion moderator--Astor--for no reason other than his impossible to deflate ego.
Nonetheless, Cleotis Bean (who has an emerging project with Gary Busey) and The Rarest Breed(a renounced Scientologist who emerged from the Rape Ghettos of xxxxxxxxxxx) keep the discussion lively, topical and, of course, exceptional as great examples of perfect use of the English language. Moreover, a resident law practitioner, Lawyer, has taken up shop at Rotten Tomatoes, keeping everyone in line.
External links
- Official website
- RottenTomatoes forums, where the contests can be found
- List of approved RottenTomatoes Critics