Critics have given the new Star Wars show, The Acolyte, solid to highly positive reviews. And yet the audience scores on websites like Rotten Tomatoes are shockingly low. We’re talking a difference of roughly 50 points between the critics’ rating and the audience’s rating. That’s a huge divide between critics and fans. Where did it come from? Are some … Read more
There’s something fascinating about the human need to quantify subjective opinions. We rate movies with stars (and even half-stars), we give them thumbs up or down, we aggregate their reviews until we determine if they are “certified fresh.” (What could be more authoritative than certified freshness? Who could argue with that?!?) These numbers sometimes fly in the … Read more
Challengers scored an easy victory this weekend while Boy Kills World fell prey to a 45-year-old xenomorph As expected, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers scored an easy win this weekend, with a $15 million weekend, just a touch softer than we predicted earlier this week. The tennis-cantered love triangle was no doubt boosted by Zendaya’s star power, … Read more
HBO has ordered a half-hour pilot of Tim Robinson’s new comedy series, The Chair Company. Per Deadline, HBO has greenlit a half-hour pilot of The Chair Company, a new comedy series co-written by Robinson and Zach Kanin. The Chair Company is executive produced by Adam McKay (The Big Short, Don’t Look Up) and Todd Schulman … Read more
The Jake Gyllenhaal remake of Road House seems destined for a streaming debut despite the best test scores of director Doug Liman’s career. The Jake Gyllenhaal/ Doug Liman remake of Road House seems destined for a streaming premiere. The news comes courtesy of Variety and was buried in a piece they wrote about the severing … Read more
One might assume that writing songs for an album and writing songs for a film’s soundtrack are two entirely separate forms of artistic processes. But as many songwriters will tell you, the experiences are actually remarkably similar. In both cases, a story is told through music — an image created in the mind’s eye using … Read more
It’s important to remember what a Rotten Tomatoes rating really represents: The average of a collection of individual scores from many different film critics. It is not a grade. It is not something determined by a group of critics who get together in a room and collectively decide on a number. It’s also not a measure … Read more
Movie public relations company Bunker 15 has been accused of paying off critics for fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores. A recent article by Vulture, titled The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes, claims that Bunker 15 deliberately manipulated the Rotten Tomatoes score for Ophelia, a 2018 Hamlet retelling starring Daisy Ridley. According to Vulture’s report, Ophelia received a … Read more
Never doubt the power of an A-list superstar. The Denzel Washington-led Equalizer 3 destroyed all competition at the domestic box office en route to a $42 million 4-day weekend ($34.5M 3-day) after an impressive $13.1M Friday, per Deadline. That’s about on par with the previous two entries in Antoine Fuqua’s franchise, a hair under The … Read more
Illumination/Universal’s Super Mario Bros. made an incredible splash at the box office this weekend, grossing an astronomical $146.36 million domestically over the 3-day weekend and a record $204.6 million over its first five days, per Deadline. To put that in perspective, Illumination’s previous top opening was 2015’s minionswhich earned $115M domestically en route to a … Read more