Rotten Tomatoes uses a percentage-based system called the Tomatometer , plus a separate Audience Score, to show how many people liked a movie or show rather than how much they liked it.

Quick Scoop: How the Tomatometer Works

  • The Tomatometer shows the percentage of positive reviews from approved critics for a movie or TV show.
  • Each critic review is labeled either “Fresh” (positive) or “Rotten” (negative); there is no “mixed” category in the core score.
  • The score appears once a minimum number of reviews has been collected (at least a handful of critic reviews).

Icons and thresholds

  • Fresh (red tomato): 60% or higher positive critic reviews.
  • Rotten (green splat): 59% or lower positive critic reviews.
  • No score: Not enough reviews yet, or the title hasn’t really been released.

Certified Fresh: The “Badge of Honor”

Some titles get an extra quality stamp called Certified Fresh.

Typically, that means:

  1. The Tomatometer is significantly above the basic 60% line (often at least the mid‑70s or higher) with enough reviews.
  1. The score has stayed consistently high over time and is unlikely to drop below the threshold.
  1. If the score later falls and stays below about 70%, the title can lose its Certified Fresh status.

So a Certified Fresh badge basically signals sustained critical approval, not just an early hype bump on a small number of reviews.

Audience Score vs Critics’ Score

Rotten Tomatoes also shows an Audience Score , which is separate from the Tomatometer.

  • Users rate the movie, usually on a 5‑star scale.
  • Ratings of about 3.5 stars out of 5 and above are treated as positive; anything below is negative, then turned into a similar percentage of positive audience reviews.
  • By clicking into “Score Details,” you can see how many reviews there are, average rating, and sometimes “Top Critics” or breakdowns for critics and audience.

This means you can have:

  • High Tomatometer, low Audience Score (critics love it, audiences lukewarm).
  • Low Tomatometer, high Audience Score (critics unimpressed, audiences enjoy it).

What the Scores Do and Don’t Mean

They DO mean:

  • The percentage of critics (or audience) who gave a broadly positive review.
  • A quick “thumbs up / thumbs down” style snapshot of overall approval.

They DON’T mean:

  • An average rating out of 10. A movie with 100% doesn’t mean “10/10” from everyone; it just means all counted critics were net positive.
  • Nuance about why people liked or disliked it. For that, you have to read the critics’ blurbs or the “What to Know” section.

Rotten Tomatoes also adds short summaries like Critics Consensus and Audience Says , bundled in a “What to Know” box so you can quickly see the tone of both sides.

At a Glance: Rotten Tomatoes Rating Types (HTML Table)

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Type Icon / Label Score Range What It Means
Tomatometer (Critics) Fresh (red tomato) 60%–100% positive critic reviewsMost critics gave broadly positive reviews.
Tomatometer (Critics) Rotten (green splat) 0%–59% positive critic reviewsMore critics were negative than positive overall.
Tomatometer (Critics) Certified Fresh badge High score (typically >= mid‑70s) with enough reviews, stable over timeStrong, sustained critical approval; can be revoked if the score drops.
Audience Score Bucket of popcorn icon Percentage of positive user reviews (≈3.5/5 stars and up count as positive)How many verified audience members liked it overall.

Why It Matters in 2026

Rotten Tomatoes scores still drive a lot of online discussion, hype, and backlash around new releases, especially on social platforms and movie forums. A big opening‑weekend Tomatometer swing can become a story in itself, affecting how people talk about a movie and sometimes whether they go see it at all.

But because the system is binary (fresh vs rotten), many fans and critics now treat it as just one signal among others—often checking review text, YouTube essays, or forums alongside the Tomatometer and Audience Score to get the full picture.

TL;DR: Rotten Tomatoes’ rating system turns critic and audience reactions into simple “what percent liked this?” scores (Fresh vs Rotten), with an extra Certified Fresh badge for titles that keep a strong, stable critic approval over time.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.