rottentomatoes.com
In recent years, the critic's job of analyzing movie and television series has become a collaborative effort. This is due to the fact that most enterprises in the media and entertainment industry have undergone a shift in how content is created and delivered.
Since Wikipedia burst onto the scene in 2001, it has been gradually shifting away from centralized control of information dissemination to a model in which citizens contribute and monitor information themselves. This shift has forever changed the ways that we share and maintain information.
This model of a more peer-reviewed system of sharing information has bled into almost every major industry - from restaurant reviews (thanks to Yelp) to more citizen-based forms of journalism (a la Twitter). Movie and television reviews, too, have been revolutionized thanks to this breakthrough. Whereas authorities on the subject, such as Roger and Ebert used to dominate film critiques, today that duty now falls on regular moviegoers and TV consumers. This new way of reviewing films has allowed for a wider variety of voices to be heard and given everyday people the opportunity to share their thoughts on what they've seen.
There are debates surrounding whether this new way of reviewing film and television has resulted in an accurate or less pretentious system. Some say that it has created a system of media reviewing that better reflects the opinions of the masses, while others claim that it has led to the watering down of criticism and a less informed consensus.
Regardless of your opinion on film and television reviews, there can be no denying the impact that sites like Rotten Tomatoes, MetaCritic, and IMDB have had on how we think about these pieces of art. In fact, the authority on movies and series almost entirely depends on a project's Rotten Tomatoes rating, rather than the opinions of a single critic. Expert opinions in this regard have become all but obsolete - more like decoration on top of cake than the key to understanding a piece of art.
History
Originally, Rotten Tomatoes was a site that allowed users to submit their own reviews of films and television shows. Over time, the site has evolved into an aggregator of film and television reviews from other websites and publications. In 1998, three undergrad students at the University of California, Berkley campus launched Rotten Tomatoes as a way to share movie and TV reviews with each other. The name "Rotten Tomatoes" comes from the historical practice of audience members throwing tomatoes at stage performers.
Rotten Tomatoes began as a passion project by Senh Duong while he was a student at UCLA. In the earliest stages of the site, it included solely films by Duong's favorite actor and martial artist, Jackie Chan. Duong's motivation for creating the site was to create an aggregate of all US reviews of Chan's first Hollywood film, Rush Hour, which was due to release in August 1998.
Duong coded the site in only two weeks and had it up and running in time for the release (which was delayed to September anyway). This bought Duong some time to begin including non-Jackie Chan films to the Rotten Tomatoes review database, which was an immediate success. In the first week upon launch, Rotten Tomatoes was receiving between 600 and 1,000 unique daily visitors.
In June of 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired Rotten Tomatoes. In 2005, Fox acquired IGN, which, in turn, eventually sold the site to Flixster in 2010. One year later, in 2011, Warner Brothers acquired Rotten Tomatoes and held onto it until 2016, when Comcast's Fandango imprint finally purchased it. In that year, Warner Brothers had a minority share of the site.
Design
Rotten Tomatoes announced a new logo, icons, and web design in March of 2018. The rebrand took on a more approachable and mass market-friendly look, retaining the colorful and somewhat Nickelodeon-esque tomato splatters and loud font choices. It was just toned down a bit, taking on a more professional look and feel.
The site itself is well designed and easy to use. The site is organized well and the sections are easy to navigate. There is a multifold banner at the top of the page that helps visitors browse trending and featured articles and listicles. A comprehensive collection of announcements and stats underneath helps you to stay up-to-date on what?s happening in film and television. Quickly check-in on movies that are opening this week, the top box office hits, what?s coming soon to theaters, what?s new on TV tonight, the most popular shows on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment, and the top DVD and streaming movies right now.
Underneath the site'sCertified Fresh Picks, you'll find the site's "Rotten Tomatoes rating of 75% and above." Then, keep scrolling down to keep up with the latest Hollywood news by browsing the Videos and Trailers section, News and Features, or Top Headlines. In my opinion, Rotten Tomatoes has one of the most logical and user-friendly site designs of any movie and TV reviews site on the web.
Content
Rotten Tomatoes does not rely on user generated reviews to calculate its ratings. Instead, it aggregates all of the movie and TV reviews that it can find into one digestible overall score. This is the rating system used by Rotten Tomatoes. Each movie and TV show is given an aggregate average score out of 100%, based on the averages of the individualized ratings that each critic has given a release. The result is, of course, a fairly reliable way to quickly assess whether a particular movie or series is worth your time.
The site's scoring and ranking method, as well as the supplementary commentary of knowledgeable writers, gives the site a more professional journalistic feel. The news section is one of the largest and most up to date of its kind.
This, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated components of Rotten Tomatoes. So, if you like reading thoughtful and well-researched pieces on current media (as well as retrospectives), Rotten Tomatoes is a site that you might want to add to your regular reading list. Oh, and don't forget: you can always look up tickets and showtimes on Rotten Tomatoes as well.
Desktop and Mobile Experience
As I was just mentioning, the desktop experience of Rotten Tomatoes is nearly perfect. This is one of those sites that has managed to pack a ton of information into an easy to navigate, clean, and highly organized format. Plus, the site menu bar offers large and streamlined dropdown menus that don't impede too much on the user experience whatsoever.
In my opinion, I feel that Rotten Tomatoes would be better served by developing an app. As of now, though, the site works just fine on mobile browsers with no glitches or intrusive ads.
Pricing and Plans
I am happy to report that Rotten Tomatoes is a completely free site. This is not a freemium service - they simply do not charge for members (or guests) to do anything on the site. Rejoice!
Suggestions that I Have
I think that it would be a good idea for Rotten Tomatoes to develop an app. This would make the user experience even more convenient, by providing an even more convenient way to personalize content, receive updates, and enjoy all that this movie and TV review service have to offer.
Conclusion
Overall, when it comes to the most convenient way to get an accurate glimpse of movie and television reviews and ratings, Rotten Tomatoes is the way to go. Plus, if you want to stay up-to-date on all that is happening and new in the world of film and TV, you likely will not need any other site in your bookmarks. Here's to hoping that they add an app to their repertoire soon!
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