rottentomatoes.com

Since the turn of the century, movie and television series critiques have been crowdsourced by members of the public. Since Wikipedia burst onto the scene in 2001, it has gradually shifted away from the top-down model of information sharing in which the majority of information is passed down from a few sources to the masses. In its place, Wikipedia introduced the world to the first and only encyclopedia created, updated, and monitored entirely by citizen volunteers. This change has had far-reaching implications for how we share and maintain information, fundamentally altering how we access and use information.

This model of a more peer-reviewed system of sharing information has revolutionized 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.

There are debates surrounding whether this shift has resulted in a more or less accurate way to judge film and television. Some say that it has created a system of media reviewing that better reflects the opinions of the masses, as opposed to just a few experts, that it has resulted in less pretentious and more honest criticism. Others claim that this system has resulted in the watering down of film criticism, creating a baser and less informed consensus.

Regardless of which side of the film and TV debate you fall on, there can be no denying that sites like Rotten Tomatoes, Meta Critic, and IMDB have completely altered our conception of film and TV critiques. To the point where the authority on movies and series almost entirely depends on a project's Rotten Tomatoes rating, rather than that of a single critic. Expert opinions in this regard have become all but obsolete - more like icing on the cake than the foundation itself.

History

The site has since evolved into a popular source for film and television reviews from around the world. It is currently owned by Amazon.com, Inc. Rotten Tomatoes is an online film and television review aggregator that was founded in 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. Its name comes from the historical practice of audience members throwing tomatoes at stage performers to indicate their dissatisfaction. The site has since grown to be a popular source for film and TV reviews from all over the world, with Amazon owning it as of 2019. Rotten Tomatoes was officially launched on August 12th, 1998, by Senh Duong as a passion project while he was a student at UCLA. The site included only reviews of Jackie Chan's first Hollywood film, Rush Hour, which was due to be released in August of that year. Duong's motivation for creating the site was to create an aggregate of all US reviews of Chan's first Hollywood film.

Duong coded the site in only two weeks and had it up and running within the designated time frame. This gave Duong some time to begin including films not starring Jackie Chan to the Rotten Tomatoes review database. And just like that, the site was an immediate success. In the first week following launch, Rotten Tomatoes was receiving between 600 and 1,000 unique daily visitors.

In June 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 2016, Warner Brothers had a minority share in Rotten Tomatoes when Comcast's Fandango imprint purchased it.

Design

Rotten Tomatoes announced a new logo, icons, and web design in March of 2018 at the South by Southwest festival. The redesign took on a more approachable and mass market-friendly look, retaining the colorful tomato splatters and loud font choices but toning them down slightly. The website is well-designed and easy to use. There is a multifold banner at the top of the page that helps visitors easily browse trending and featured articles and listicles. The website has a comprehensive collection of announcements and stats underneath which helps you to stay up-to-date on what is happening in film and television.

In a few clicks, you'll be able to access reviews, videos, trailers, and more about the latest Hollywood releases. Our certification process ensures that only the best content makes it to our site, so you can be sure that you're getting the very latest information on what's hot in Hollywood.

Content

Rotten Tomatoes is a critique aggregator, not a user-generated review site. Like many other aggregators, such as IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes collects all of the movie and TV reviews it can find and calculates an overall score. This score is based on the averages of the individual ratings that critics have given releases. Consequently, it provides a reasonably reliable way to assess whether a film or TV show is worth your time. Rotten Tomatoes has a staff of knowledgeable writers who add supplementary commentary in the form of listicles and think pieces, which gives the site a more professional, journalistic feel. The news section of this site is one of the largest and most up to date of its kind.

According to my opinion, one of the most underrated aspects of Rotten Tomatoes is its ability to offer thoughtful and well-researched pieces on current media as well as retrospectives. Additionally, if you're looking for information on tickets and showtimes, Rotten Tomatoes is a great site to check out.

Desktop and Mobile Experience

I just mentioned that 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 on user experience whatsoever. I do not have much to say about the mobile experience as there is no mobile experience to speak of. That said, the site runs just fine on mobile browsers and appears to be equally optimized for smartphone web browsers. There are no significant glitches or intrusive ads, which is nice.

Pricing and Plans

I am pleased to report that Rotten Tomatoes is free of charge for members (or guests). There is no charge for anything on the site.

Suggestions that I Have

I believe that developing an app for Rotten Tomatoes would be a very good idea. It would make the user experience much more convenient, with updates and personalized content available at their fingertips.

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!