THE WEDNESDAY CHARTS | Rotten Tomatoes update | July 9, 2025

The average RT score is now 65.8, up from 44.7 before 2011

The Wednesday Charts | Rotten Tomatoes update | July 9, 2025

We keep a close eye on Rotten Tomatoes and have watched them evolve over the years. We’re overdue for an update and want to get this to you between the giant summer openings last weekend and this weekend —

- The average Rotten Tomatoes score rose sharply during the 11 years between 2011 and 2022, from 44.7 to around 65. It’s averaging 65.8 in the most recent year-to-date period — you can see it below.

• RT was founded by three college students in the Bay Area in the late 1990s. Those dilettantes had no experience in film criticism or in the movie industry, but they caught on during the early years of the internet with their snarky attitude and dismal numbers.

  • Someone needed to step in and clean this up, because the negative scores were damaging movie after movie. Warner Bros. bought the site in 2011, and and Universal bought a controlling stake in 2017, and the scores have improved since then. This is much better than what was happening before 2011:

There are several points we want to make about this: