Back Rotten Tomatoes AF روتن توميتوز Arabic روتن توميتوز ARY Rotten Tomatoes AST Rotten Tomatoes AZ Rotten Tomatoes BE Rotten Tomatoes BE-X-OLD Rotten Tomatoes Bulgarian रॉटन टोमैटोज BH রটেন টম্যাটোস Bengali/Bangla

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes
Screenshot
Rotten Tomatoes's homepage as of April 1, 2021
Type of site
Film and television review aggregator and user community
Country of originUnited States
Owner
Founder(s)Senh Duong
Key peopleSenh Duong
Patrick Y. Lee
Stephen Wang
ParentFandango Media[1]
URLrottentomatoes.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedAugust 12, 1998 (1998-08-12)
OCLC number48768329
[2][3][4]

Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang.[5][6][7][8] Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film Léolo.[9]

Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster, which was in turn acquired by Warner Bros. in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango ticketing company.[10] Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango.[1]

The site is influential among moviegoers, a third of whom say they consult it before going to the cinema in the U.S.[11] It has been criticized for oversimplifying reviews by flattening them into a fresh vs. rotten dichotomy.[12][13] It has also been criticized for being easy for studios to manipulate by limiting early screenings to critics inclined to be favorable, among other tactics.[12]

  1. ^ a b Spangler, Todd (May 23, 2019). "Rotten Tomatoes Revamps Movie Audience Scores to Focus on Verified Ticket Buyers". Variety. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2020. NBCUniversal's Fandango acquired the reviews-aggregation site in 2016 from Warner Bros., which retains a 25% stake in Rotten Tomatoes.
  2. ^ "Fandango snaps up Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster". Engadget(AOL). February 17, 2016. Archived from the original on February 19, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  3. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 17, 2016). "Fandango Acquires Rotten Tomatoes & Flixster". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  4. ^ "Rottentomatoes.com Traffic, Demographics and Competitors – Alexa". www.alexa.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  5. ^ "How Rotten Tomatoes became Hollywood's most influential – and feared – website". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  6. ^ "Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series: A Fireside Chat with Rotten Tomatoes Founder Patrick Lee – Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program". Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  7. ^ "Notable Cal Alumni". Cal Alumni Association, UC Berkeley. February 21, 2018. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  8. ^ "Stephen Wang". angel.co. Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  9. ^ "the Scenes at Rotten Tomatoes" by Simon Van Zuylen-Wood. Wired. January 21, 2020. Accessed February 1, 2020.
  10. ^ Pallotta, Frank. "Fandango acquires review site Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  11. ^ Piacenza, Joanna (November 1, 2018). "America Can Stomach Rotten Tomatoes". Morning Consult Pro. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference ATTACK was invoked but never defined (see the help page).