shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Rotten Tomatoes?

Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews, Trailers, Showtimes, and Tickets - rottentomatoes.com

Worth it. Use it: it's free and the fastest read on critic consensus before you watch. Just don't treat the Tomatometer as a quality verdict — cross-check IMDb or Metacritic.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~20 public sources. Consumer media site, so enterprise-style security, support, and pricing data is thin; several Reddit snippets were truncated.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo evidence on support quality.
  • Security postureNo findings found in reviewed sources.

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Weekend movie pickers
  • Trailer-and-showtime browsing
  • Checking critic vs. audience gap

Not for

  • Anyone wanting nuanced film criticism
  • People reading the Tomatometer as objective quality
  • Studios wanting influence over their scores
  • Anyone needing official data feeds — third-party scrapers only

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

A 70% Tomatometer means 70% of critics leaned positive — not a 7/10 quality average.

medium

Owned by Fandango since 2016; showtime links funnel you toward its parent's ticket checkout.

medium

Both scores are hotly contested; cross-check IMDb or Metacritic before committing two hours.

low

Help desk exists, but no public data on support responsiveness.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free Tomatometer condenses many critics into one quick number.
  • One site for reviews, trailers, showtimes, and tickets.
  • Audience score offers a counterweight to critics.
  • Cited widely enough that studios publicly push back.
  • Funds grants for critics attending festivals.

Cons

  • Score shows percent of critics positive, not average rating quality.
  • Critic and audience scores frequently diverge on the same film.
  • Recurring Reddit accusations of industry bias and unreliability.
  • Users call the scoring scale inconsistent across titles.
  • Missing certified reviews flagged by TV critics.

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 12 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x3review x5security x1news x3

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Completely free; ads only.
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Score visible instantly; no learning curve.
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Scores, trailers, tickets; thin on filters.
  • Support quality. No evidence on support quality.
  • Security posture. No findings found in reviewed sources.
  • $0 Price Free, ad-supported site
  • 1998 Founded Acquired by Fandango in 2016
  • 4.85M Facebook followers Per official Facebook page
  • $377K Est. revenue Third-party Crunchbase estimate; likely understated

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Movie & TV Tomatometer scores
  • Trailers, showtimes, ticket links
  • Editorial articles and lists

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Redditors are split: many use RT as a quick gauge, while others call the scoring system biased or unreliable.

“Rotten Tomatoes is an absolute garbage rating system.”
Reddit, r/movies
“Is Rotten Tomatoes Still Reliable? A Statistical Analysis”
Reddit, r/movies
Full analysis

Based on ~20 public sources. Consumer media site, so enterprise-style security, support, and pricing data is thin; several Reddit snippets were truncated.

Free and handy for a quick consensus check — but the Tomatometer measures positivity, not quality.

Methodology

Based on ~20 public sources. Consumer media site, so enterprise-style security, support, and pricing data is thin; several Reddit snippets were truncated.

Sources

  1. Rotten Tomatoes homepagerottentomatoes.com
    official
  2. About Rotten Tomatoesrottentomatoes.com
    official
  3. Rotten Tomatoes - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    news
  4. Is Rotten Tomatoes Still Reliable? - Redditreddit.com
    review
  5. Rotten Tomatoes is an absolute garbage rating system - Redditreddit.com
    review
  6. Understanding Rotten Tomatoes scores - Redditreddit.com
    review
  7. Critics vs audience scores - Redditreddit.com
    review
  8. Attacked by Rotten Tomatoes - NYTnytimes.com
    news
  9. How to correctly interpret RT scores - Facebookfacebook.com
    review
  10. Rotten-tomatoes Cyber Risk Comparison - Rankiteorankiteo.com
    security
  11. I Prefer Letterboxd - MakeUseOfmakeuseof.com
    news
  12. Rotten Tomatoes to Provide Grants for Criticseditorial.rottentomatoes.com
    official

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