Matt Bircher:

1. In aggregate, critics and ordinary people are usually about 5 points apart.
2. Usually, ordinary people review the highest-grossing movies higher. This makes sense as they are voting for these movies with their wallets, not just their reviews. Critics, meanwhile, see everything, so in theory, these films are about the same as everything else for them.
3. 2020 and 2021 have seen a major divergence in scores. Critics were consistent, while audience reviews skyrocketed to the first 90% year ever.
4. The audience scores for movies in 2021 are absolutely ridiculous. Either this was the best year for movies ever, or there’s some phenomenon going on here I can’t see in just the data.
5. 2015 was a year of peace, as the critics and the audience agreed perfectly on the quality of the top 20 movies.

Matt created a great set of charts and tables, along with a geeky Keyboard Maestro how-to. Great post.

Critics vs “Real People”: Rotten Tomatoes (and Letterboxd) Data Tells All