TLDR; watch the video:
If you want the details, read on!
The premise
When treated as a business, films need to make money. When they do, they propel the careers of filmmakers to further projects. It gives them access to well-known actors and funding, and a greater pie of the audience slice.
Filmmakers who ignore this aspect, for whatever reason, and whose films don’t make money, will realize there are no offers or interest for future projects. There are exceptions, but you can’t bank on that just as you can’t bank on winning the lottery.
It’s far wiser for a filmmaker to understand and accept the reality that films need to make money. It’s an expensive art form, and if a filmmaker wants the maximum number of people to see a film, that also correlates to the maximum money the film can make. This is especially true of films released in theaters.
We’ll restrict this essay to films made for a theatrical release. Part of the marketing that surrounds a film’s release are the reviews it gets from film reviewers, film critics, whatever they want to call themselves.
These are individuals who have taken on the responsibility of informing the audience about the worthiness of a film. Should you go to see it or not? The reason this is a responsibility is because the audience has to shell out money to watch a film in a theater.
In this respect, probably, a film reviewer provides a service to the audience.
However, what has happened over the decades is film reviewers have become gatekeepers, presumably under the guise of having the power to decide a film’s box office performance. The fate of the film rests in their hands, or so the perception is.
Filmmakers, too, fall prey to this perception, and they try to garner the best reviews from film reviewers and critics in the hope this will translate into box office revenue.
This is the premise of this article:
Does the reviews or ratings of a film by film reviewers and film critics correlate to box office performance?
Important!
This article is NOT a scientific study.
All the data that we have used here has been taken from public sources and are available for you to check.
We did this research as:
- a fun activity to check if movie reviews generally had an impact on the top grossing films of the last two years.
- for ourselves and for any independent filmmaker who might be interested.
Like it or not, this is just what we did, with the limited time, resources and skills that we had. We could be wrong. In fact, we include other papers and their findings in this article so you can do your own research.
And if you are troubled by us interchanging film reviewer for film critic, here’s an explanation.
For the purposes of this article film reviewers or film critics are a group of people who are professionally in the business of analyzing and reviewing a film. Usually they also give a film a rating.
Also used interchangeably is the term ‘reviews’ and ‘ratings’. This means the objective score that a reviewer has given to a film. The exact score is hardly comparable. One reviewer might give a film a 2.5/5, another a 3/5, but these two don’t meant the same as their criteria for rating a film are different. What’s more precise is if a reviewer has given a film a vote of confidence, as represented by the Tomatometer score. Should you watch the film or not? That’s all that matters.
If these decisions we’ve made are not palatable to you, stop reading. Otherwise, let’s get right into it!
The research
We took the highest grossing films of the years 2021 and 2022 and juxtaposed them with their specific Tomatometer score, the audience score, their genre, MPAA rating, the number of reviews they received and their runtimes.
Then we let the computers do their thing and let statistics decide the results.
All the box office collections were taken from Box Office Mojo and the ratings were taken from Rotten Tomatoes.
All the films for which the data was not available on Rotten Tomatoes have been disregarded. This resulted in the exclusion of all the Chinese, Russian, Indian and other non-English films. Thus, the data only concerns English language movies made in the United States of America, or Hollywood films.
Ultimately, we had a list of around 200 films for which all the data was available. Here’s the table (Scroll down to continue reading as to why we picked this data):
The Table
| Film | Worldwide | Domestic | Tomatometer | Audience Meter | Genre | Running time in minutes | Number of Reviews | MPAA Rating |
| Avatar: The Way of Water | $2,267,606,306 | $665,544,119 | 76 | 92 | Sci-Fi/Adventure | 192 | 428 | PG-13 |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home | $1,912,233,593 | $804,793,477 | 93 | 98 | Action/Adventure | 148 | 425 | PG-13 |
| Top Gun: Maverick | $1,488,732,821 | $718,732,821 | 96 | 99 | Action/Adventure | 131 | 467 | PG-13 |
| Jurassic World: Dominion | $1,001,978,080 | $376,851,080 | 29 | 77 | Action/Adventure | 147 | 394 | PG-13 |
| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | $955,775,804 | $411,331,607 | 74 | 85 | Action/Adventure | 126 | 449 | PG-13 |
| Minions: The Rise of Gru | $939,628,210 | $369,695,210 | 70 | 89 | Kids&family/Comedy | 87 | 181 | PG |
| The Battle at Lake Changjin | $902,548,476 | $342,411 | 36 | 100 | War/Action | 176 | 11 | |
| Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | $858,524,629 | $453,786,760 | 84 | 94 | Action/Adventure | 161 | 428 | PG-13 |
| No Time to Die | $774,153,007 | $160,891,007 | 83 | 88 | Action/Adventure | 163 | 427 | PG-13 |
| The Batman | $770,945,583 | $369,345,583 | 85 | 87 | Action/Adventure | 176 | 508 | PG-13 |
| Thor: Love and Thunder | $760,928,081 | $343,256,830 | 63 | 77 | Action/Adventure | 125 | 434 | PG-13 |
| F9: The Fast Saga | $726,229,501 | $173,005,945 | 60 | 82 | Action/Adventure | 145 | 310 | PG-13 |
| Venom: Let There Be Carnage | $506,863,592 | $213,550,366 | 57 | 84 | Action/Adventure | 86 | 275 | PG-13 |
| Godzilla vs. Kong | $470,116,094 | $100,916,094 | 75 | 91 | Sci-fi/Action | 113 | 389 | PG-13 |
| Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | $442,767,325 | $173,430,325 | 95 | 94 | Kids&family/Comedy | 102 | 178 | PG |
| Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | $432,243,292 | $224,543,292 | 91 | 98 | Action/Adventure | 133 | 340 | PG-13 |
| Sing 2 | $408,396,271 | $162,790,990 | 72 | 98 | Kids&family/Musical | 110 | 137 | PG |
| Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore | $406,950,844 | $95,850,844 | 46 | 83 | Fantasy/Adventure | 142 | 236 | PG-13 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | $402,656,846 | $190,872,904 | 69 | 96 | Kids&family/Comedy | 122 | 175 | PG |
| Eternals | $402,064,899 | $164,870,234 | 47 | 77 | Action/Adventure | 157 | 406 | PG-13 |
| Dune | $402,027,830 | $108,327,830 | 83 | 90 | Sci-Fi/Adventure | 155 | 497 | PG-13 |
| Uncharted | $401,748,820 | $148,648,820 | 41 | 90 | Action/Adventure | 116 | 257 | PG-13 |
| Black Adam | $392,952,111 | $168,152,111 | 39 | 88 | Action/Adventure | 125 | 296 | PG-13 |
| Black Widow | $379,751,655 | $183,651,655 | 79 | 91 | Action/Adventure | 133 | 454 | PG-13 |
| Free Guy | $331,526,598 | $121,626,598 | 80 | 94 | Action/Adventure | 115 | 294 | PG-13 |
| A Quiet Place Part II | $297,372,261 | $160,072,261 | 91 | 92 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 97 | 362 | PG-13 |
| Elvis | $287,340,048 | $151,040,048 | 77 | 94 | Biography/Drama | 159 | 389 | PG-13 |
| Encanto | $256,786,742 | $96,093,622 | 91 | 93 | Kids&family/Musical | 99 | 210 | PG |
| The Bad Guys | $250,162,278 | $97,233,630 | 88 | 93 | Kids&family/Comedy | 99 | 170 | PG |
| Bullet Train | $239,268,602 | $103,368,602 | 54 | 76 | Action/Comedy | 126 | 328 | R |
| Cruella | $233,503,234 | $86,103,234 | 75 | 97 | Comedy/Kids&family | 134 | 409 | PG-13 |
| Lightyear | $226,425,420 | $118,307,188 | 74 | 84 | Kids&family/Comedy | 100 | 315 | PG |
| Jungle Cruise | $220,889,446 | $116,987,516 | 62 | 92 | Action/Adventure | 127 | 345 | PG-13 |
| Smile | $216,135,048 | $105,935,048 | 80 | 77 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 116 | 183 | R |
| DC League of Super-Pets | $207,357,117 | $93,657,117 | 73 | 88 | Kids&family/Comedy | 106 | 148 | PG |
| The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It | $206,431,050 | $65,631,050 | 55 | 83 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 112 | 250 | R |
| Raging Fire | $205,842,393 | $385,305 | 91 | 100 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 126 | 54 | |
| Ghostbusters: Afterlife | $204,334,455 | $129,360,575 | 63 | 94 | Comedy/Fantasy | 124 | 308 | PG-13 |
| The Lost City | $190,844,029 | $105,344,029 | 79 | 83 | Romance/Comedy | 112 | 266 | PG-13 |
| One Piece Film: Red | $187,185,952 | $12,775,324 | 94 | 95 | Action/Adventure | 115 | 35 | PG-13 |
| Cliff Walkers | $181,325,565 | $152,972 | 81 | 78 | Mystery&Thriller/Crime | 120 | 52 | |
| Nope | $171,235,592 | $123,277,080 | 83 | 69 | Sci-Fi/Horror | 135 | 448 | R |
| M3GAN | $171,221,205 | $94,529,205 | 93 | 78 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 102 | 298 | PG-13 |
| The Suicide Squad | $168,717,425 | $55,817,425 | 90 | 82 | Action/Adventure | 132 | 379 | R |
| Ticket to Paradise | $168,525,142 | $68,275,985 | 57 | 87 | Romance/Comedy | 104 | 215 | PG-13 |
| Morbius | $167,460,961 | $73,865,530 | 16 | 71 | Action/Fantasy | 104 | 276 | PG-13 |
| Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie | $166,745,261 | $34,542,754 | 98 | 98 | Fantasy/Action | 105 | 53 | PG-13 |
| Space Jam: A New Legacy | $163,692,228 | $70,592,228 | 26 | 79 | Kids&family/Musical | 115 | 228 | PG |
| The Black Phone | $161,440,742 | $90,123,230 | 83 | 88 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 102 | 257 | R |
| RRR | $159,186,595 | $14,500,000 | 95 | 94 | Action/Drama | 187 | 94 | |
| The Matrix Resurrections | $157,286,805 | $37,686,805 | 63 | 63 | Sci-fi/Action | 148 | 359 | R |
| Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway | $153,901,717 | $40,501,717 | 67 | 89 | Kids&family/Comedy | 93 | 78 | PG |
| House of Gucci | $153,268,899 | $53,809,574 | 62 | 83 | Drama | 157 | 366 | R |
| A Writer’s Odyssey | $150,123,320 | $160,013 | 93 | 76 | Action/Fantasy | 130 | 14 | |
| The Boss Baby 2: Family Business | $146,745,280 | $57,300,280 | 46 | 89 | Kids&family/Comedy | 107 | 102 | PG |
| PAW Patrol: The Movie | $144,327,371 | $40,127,371 | 80 | 97 | Kids&family/Comedy | 85 | 51 | G |
| Where the Crawdads Sing | $140,230,760 | $90,230,760 | 34 | 96 | Drama/Mystery&Thriller | 125 | 212 | PG-13 |
| Scream | $140,041,405 | $81,641,405 | 76 | 81 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 114 | 293 | R |
| Death on the Nile | $137,307,235 | $45,630,104 | 62 | 82 | Mystery&Thriller/Crime | 127 | 284 | PG-13 |
| Tom & Jerry | $136,536,687 | $46,536,687 | 30 | 82 | Kids&family/Comedy | 101 | 130 | PG |
| Halloween Kills | $131,647,155 | $92,002,155 | 38 | 66 | Holiday/Horror | 105 | 272 | R |
| Raya and the Last Dragon | $130,423,032 | $54,723,032 | 94 | 97 | Kids&family/Fantasy | 108 | 298 | PG |
| The King’s Man | $125,897,478 | $37,176,373 | 41 | 80 | Action/Adventure | 131 | 181 | R |
| The Addams Family 2 | $119,815,153 | $56,489,153 | 28 | 69 | Kids&family/Comedy | 93 | 112 | PG |
| Everything Everywhere All at Once | $107,541,892 | $73,024,786 | 95 | 88 | Comedy/Adventure | 132 | 376 | R |
| Clifford the Big Red Dog | $107,347,356 | $48,947,356 | 58 | 94 | Kids&family/Comedy | 97 | 95 | PG |
| Halloween Ends | $104,186,860 | $64,079,860 | 40 | 57 | Holiday/Horror | 111 | 253 | R |
| Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile | $104,088,441 | $46,888,441 | 72 | 93 | Kids&family/Musical | 106 | 89 | PG |
| Wrath of Man | $103,966,489 | $27,466,489 | 67 | 90 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 119 | 256 | R |
| A Man Called Otto | $103,483,028 | $62,283,028 | 69 | 97 | Comedy/Drama | 126 | 197 | PG-13 |
| The Roundup | $101,154,047 | $812,859 | 96 | 100 | Crime/Drama | 106 | 25 | |
| Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time | $93,763,012 | $810,744 | 100 | 92 | Sci-Fi/Action | 154 | 24 | |
| Downton Abbey: A New Era | $92,616,233 | $44,141,550 | 86 | 97 | Drama | 125 | 198 | PG |
| The Woman King | $92,428,130 | $67,328,130 | 94 | 99 | Action/Adventure | 135 | 261 | PG-13 |
| Old | $90,146,510 | $48,276,510 | 50 | 53 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 108 | 337 | PG-13 |
| K.G.F: Chapter 2 | $89,123,940 | $2,874,000 | 46 | 94 | Action/Crime | 168 | 13 | |
| Don’t Worry Darling | $87,409,403 | $45,309,403 | 38 | 74 | Mystery&Thriller | 123 | 341 | R |
| Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero | $86,562,140 | $38,112,140 | 93 | 95 | Action/Adventure | 100 | 57 | PG-13 |
| Dog | $84,774,243 | $61,778,069 | 77 | 89 | Comedy | 101 | 156 | PG-13 |
| Mortal Kombat | $84,426,031 | $42,326,031 | 54 | 86 | Action/Adventure | 110 | 294 | R |
| Jackass Forever | $80,484,161 | $57,743,451 | 85 | 91 | Comedy | 96 | 168 | R |
| The Menu | $79,628,200 | $38,501,125 | 88 | 76 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 107 | 312 | R |
| Candyman | $77,411,570 | $61,186,570 | 84 | 72 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 91 | 333 | R |
| The Forever Purge | $76,994,245 | $44,539,245 | 49 | 78 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 103 | 159 | R |
| West Side Story | $76,016,171 | $38,530,322 | 91 | 93 | Musical/Romance | 156 | 385 | PG-13 |
| Violent Night | $75,926,285 | $49,979,285 | 73 | 88 | Holiday/Action | 112 | 203 | R |
| Strange World | $73,621,640 | $37,968,963 | 72 | 66 | Kids&family/Comedy | 105 | 163 | PG |
| Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard | $70,060,492 | $38,014,727 | 26 | 79 | Action/Comedy | 100 | 192 | R |
| The Northman | $69,633,110 | $34,233,110 | 90 | 64 | Action/Adventure | 137 | 372 | R |
| Moonfall | $67,295,363 | $19,060,660 | 36 | 70 | Sci-Fi/Action | 130 | 214 | PG-13 |
| Escape Room: Tournament of Champions | $65,774,490 | $25,314,753 | 51 | 75 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 88 | 79 | PG-13 |
| Belle | $64,666,502 | $4,018,313 | 95 | 95 | Fantasy/Adventure | 121 | 127 | PG |
| Babylon | $61,851,455 | $15,351,455 | 56 | 52 | Comedy/Drama | 189 | 338 | R |
| Ron’s Gone Wrong | $60,692,022 | $23,009,270 | 80 | 94 | Kids&family/Comedy | 107 | 102 | PG |
| Beast | $59,095,809 | $31,846,530 | 68 | 77 | Mystery&Thriller/Adventure | 93 | 206 | R |
| Nobody | $57,510,518 | $27,568,035 | 84 | 94 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 92 | 284 | R |
| Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody | $56,675,593 | $23,675,593 | 43 | 92 | Biography/Drama | 146 | 130 | PG-13 |
| Don’t Breathe 2 | $53,785,551 | $32,712,950 | 43 | 85 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 98 | 79 | R |
| Ambulance | $52,300,984 | $22,781,115 | 68 | 88 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 136 | 248 | R |
| Marry Me | $50,477,597 | $22,438,180 | 61 | 92 | Romance/Comedy | 112 | 213 | PG-13 |
| Brahmastra Part One: Shiva | $50,164,785 | $7,839,108 | 52 | 69 | Fantasy/Adventure | 167 | 33 | |
| Belfast | $49,089,296 | $9,250,870 | 86 | 92 | Drama | 97 | 327 | PG-13 |
| My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission | $46,951,862 | $12,271,658 | 86 | 95 | Action/Adventure | 104 | 29 | PG-13 |
| The French Dispatch | $46,333,545 | $16,124,375 | 75 | 76 | Comedy/Drama | 107 | 312 | R |
| Barbarian | $45,352,337 | $40,842,944 | 93 | 71 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 102 | 200 | R |
| The Banshees of Inisherin | $45,281,833 | $10,424,878 | 96 | 75 | Comedy | 109 | 342 | R |
| In the Heights | $45,175,167 | $29,975,167 | 94 | 94 | Musical | 143 | 367 | PG-13 |
| Prey for the Devil | $44,658,929 | $19,802,293 | 17 | 68 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 93 | 35 | PG-13 |
| Spirit Untamed | $42,717,215 | $17,716,215 | 48 | 95 | Kids&family/Adventure | 88 | 114 | PG |
| Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank | $42,335,370 | $17,811,382 | 54 | 68 | Kids&family/Comedy | 97 | 61 | PG |
| Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City | $41,914,915 | $17,000,612 | 30 | 65 | Horror/Action | 107 | 87 | R |
| Snake Eyes | $40,064,325 | $28,264,325 | 35 | 74 | Action/Adventure | 121 | 145 | PG-13 |
| Nightmare Alley | $39,629,195 | $11,338,107 | 81 | 68 | Mystery&Thriller/Crime | 150 | 350 | R |
| Nomadland | $39,458,207 | $3,700,000 | 93 | 82 | Drama | 108 | 429 | R |
| King Richard | $39,429,285 | $15,129,285 | 90 | 98 | Biography/Drama | 146 | 292 | PG-13 |
| Orphan: First Kill | $37,083,743 | $5,413,227 | 72 | 77 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 99 | 144 | R |
| Malignant | $34,891,791 | $13,391,791 | 76 | 52 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 111 | 172 | R |
| The Bob’s Burgers Movie | $34,148,750 | $31,933,830 | 88 | 89 | Comedy/Mystery&Thriller | 102 | 145 | PG-13 |
| Hunt | $33,811,307 | $25,994 | 69 | 90 | Drama/Action | 131 | 52 | |
| The Invitation | $33,700,080 | $25,100,080 | 29 | 59 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 105 | 66 | PG-13 |
| Licorice Pizza | $33,272,792 | $17,318,007 | 91 | 66 | Comedy | 133 | 317 | R |
| Respect | $32,882,823 | $24,278,399 | 68 | 95 | Biography/Drama | 145 | 191 | PG-13 |
| Shin Ultraman | $32,125,023 | $601,490 | 96 | 86 | Sci-Fi/Action | 112 | 25 | |
| The Fabelmans | $31,374,820 | $17,173,920 | 92 | 83 | Drama | 151 | 366 | PG-13 |
| Tad the Lost Explorer and the Emerald Tablet | $31,339,191 | $67,599 | 89 | 73 | Kids&family/Comedy | 150 | 9 | |
| Amsterdam | $31,245,810 | $14,947,969 | 32 | 62 | Comedy/Mystery&Thriller | 134 | 250 | R |
| Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris | $31,038,976 | $10,433,915 | 94 | 93 | Comedy/Drama | 115 | 173 | PG |
| The Little Things | $30,842,746 | $15,342,746 | 44 | 67 | Mystery&Thriller/Crime | 127 | 264 | R |
| The Unholy | $30,832,137 | $15,532,137 | 28 | 56 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 99 | 61 | PG-13 |
| The Last Duel | $30,552,111 | $10,853,945 | 85 | 81 | History/Drama | 153 | 287 | R |
| Escape from Mogadishu | $29,902,716 | $346,271 | 95 | 88 | War/Drama | 121 | 44 | |
| Vikram | $29,837,637 | $1,770,000 | 57 | 95 | Mystery&Thriller/Action | 146 | 14 | |
| The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent | $29,116,320 | $20,300,157 | 87 | 87 | Comedy/Action | 106 | 309 | R |
| The Whale | $28,424,325 | $16,766,587 | 65 | 91 | Drama | 117 | 312 | R |
| The 355 | $27,827,745 | $14,570,455 | 24 | 86 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 122 | 226 | PG-13 |
| American Underdog | $26,514,814 | $26,514,814 | 75 | 98 | Biography/Drama | 112 | 69 | PG |
| Chaos Walking | $26,508,132 | $13,287,908 | 21 | 71 | Sci-Fi/Adventure | 109 | 152 | PG-13 |
| The Courier | $26,001,227 | $6,613,432 | 85 | 95 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 111 | 214 | PG-13 |
| Spencer | $24,901,028 | $7,086,632 | 83 | 52 | Biography/Drama | 111 | 350 | R |
| Triangle of Sadness | $23,957,296 | $4,503,310 | 72 | 70 | Comedy | 149 | 253 | R |
| Parallel Mothers | $23,088,295 | $2,297,501 | 96 | 78 | Drama | 123 | 225 | R |
| The Marksman | $23,076,711 | $15,566,093 | 39 | 83 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 107 | 108 | PG-13 |
| The Witch: Part 2 – The Other One | $23,068,596 | $143,723 | 76 | 62 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 137 | 17 | |
| Last Night in Soho | $22,957,625 | $10,127,625 | 76 | 90 | Mystery&Thriller/Drama | 117 | 343 | R |
| Decision to Leave | $22,677,455 | $2,179,864 | 93 | 87 | Mystery&Thriller/Crime | 138 | 228 | |
| See How They Run | $21,966,634 | $9,586,237 | 75 | 69 | Mystery&Thriller/Comedy | 98 | 189 | PG-13 |
| Devotion | $21,754,392 | $20,511,938 | 81 | 92 | War/History | 139 | 114 | PG-13 |
| Father Stu | $21,592,379 | $20,884,796 | 41 | 95 | Biography/Drama | 124 | 123 | R |
| Emergency Declaration | $21,353,780 | $412,196 | 64 | 79 | Action/Drama | 138 | 33 | |
| Three Thousand Years of Longing | $19,893,416 | $8,286,741 | 71 | 73 | Fantasy/Drama | 108 | 253 | R |
| Stillwater | $19,754,272 | $14,465,535 | 75 | 72 | Drama | 140 | 194 | R |
| The Wolf and the Lion | $19,510,578 | $2,072,173 | 29 | 90 | Drama | 99 | 28 | PG |
| Dear Evan Hansen | $19,123,994 | $15,002,646 | 29 | 88 | Musical/Drama | 137 | 279 | PG-13 |
| Those Who Wish Me Dead | $19,107,200 | $7,407,200 | 62 | 86 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 100 | 222 | R |
| The Green Knight | $18,887,953 | $17,173,321 | 89 | 50 | Fantasy/Adventure | 125 | 325 | R |
| Antlers | $18,867,659 | $10,619,670 | 60 | 67 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 99 | 178 | R |
| Broker | $18,239,189 | $1,046,899 | 94 | 88 | Drama | 129 | 125 | R |
| Bo Gia | $17,480,489 | $350,000 | 29 | 98 | Comedy/Drama | 128 | 7 | |
| Fall | $17,363,261 | $7,240,521 | 79 | 79 | Mystery&Thriller | 107 | 141 | PG-13 |
| The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie | $17,288,993 | $502,000 | 91 | 97 | Romance/Comedy | 135 | 11 | |
| Tár | $16,832,160 | $6,605,160 | 91 | 73 | Drama/Music | 158 | 321 | R |
| The Amazing Maurice | $16,695,172 | $3,561,050 | 73 | 66 | Kids&family/Comedy | 93 | 49 | PG |
| Cry Macho | $16,510,734 | $10,310,734 | 57 | 64 | Drama/Western | 121 | 176 | PG-13 |
| Reminiscence | $16,400,193 | $3,900,193 | 36 | 37 | Sci-Fi/Mystery&Thriller | 116 | 199 | PG-13 |
| The Dry | $16,066,821 | $364,237 | 90 | 89 | Crime/Drama | 118 | 99 | R |
| Radhe Shyam | $15,954,804 | $1,860,000 | 22 | 54 | Romance/Drama | 140 | 9 | |
| Blacklight | $15,902,207 | $9,591,094 | 11 | 82 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 105 | 103 | PG-13 |
| The Night House | $15,437,703 | $7,100,581 | 88 | 69 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 110 | 209 | R |
| Drive My Car | $15,362,897 | $2,352,240 | 97 | 78 | Drama | 179 | 216 | |
| Minari | $15,312,445 | $3,110,580 | 98 | 86 | Drama | 115 | 320 | PG-13 |
| Firestarter | $15,039,250 | $9,739,250 | 10 | 47 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 94 | 158 | R |
| Bros | $14,781,779 | $11,628,165 | 89 | 90 | Romance/Comedy | 115 | 221 | R |
| X | $14,779,858 | $11,765,309 | 94 | 75 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 105 | 222 | R |
| Terrifier 2 | $14,768,062 | $10,640,105 | 85 | 80 | Holiday/Horror | 138 | 73 | |
| Bones and All | $14,534,907 | $7,834,907 | 82 | 62 | Mystery&Thriller/Romance | 130 | 275 | R |
| The Duke | $14,227,217 | $1,526,970 | 97 | 85 | Comedy/Drama | 96 | 145 | R |
| Sword Art Online: Progressive – Aria of a Starless Night | $14,032,747 | $1,050,000 | 80 | 95 | Action/Adventure | 97 | 5 | |
| Bodies Bodies Bodies | $13,929,670 | $11,446,602 | 85 | 69 | Mystery&Thriller/Horror | 95 | 226 | R |
| Memory | $13,897,255 | $7,329,043 | 29 | 81 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 114 | 100 | R |
| She Said | $13,744,190 | $5,825,995 | 88 | 91 | Drama | 129 | 263 | R |
| Eiffel | $13,649,605 | $444,814 | 48 | 89 | Biography/Drama | 109 | 52 | R |
| Glass Onion | $13,280,000 | $13,280,000 | 92 | 92 | Mystery&Thriller/Comedy | 140 | 401 | PG-13 |
| Easter Sunday | $13,074,255 | $13,013,690 | 43 | 71 | Holiday/Comedy | 96 | 65 | PG-13 |
| The Many Saints of Newark | $13,037,403 | $8,237,403 | 72 | 59 | Crime/Drama | 120 | 223 | R |
| The Worst Person in the World | $12,717,446 | $3,034,775 | 96 | 86 | Comedy/Drama | 128 | 242 | R |
| Moonage Daydream | $12,411,475 | $4,218,925 | 92 | 76 | Documentary/Music | 134 | 153 | PG-13 |
| Laal Singh Chaddha | $12,093,536 | $3,401,324 | 65 | 91 | Comedy/Drama | 159 | 34 | PG-13 |
| Alienoid | $12,067,556 | $168,309 | 83 | 89 | Action/Fantasy | 143 | 29 | |
| That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond | $11,486,345 | $1,588,491 | 54 | 93 | Fantasy/Adventure | 114 | 13 | PG-13 |
| Jug Jugg Jeeyo | $11,467,726 | $1,033,000 | 50 | 42 | Romance/Comedy | 150 | 10 | |
| Men | $11,152,071 | $7,587,853 | 69 | 39 | Horror/Drama | 100 | 261 | R |
| Aline | $11,149,943 | $667,815 | 56 | 69 | Biography/Drama | 128 | 80 | PG-13 |
| Till | $10,556,567 | $9,000,202 | 96 | 97 | Drama | 130 | 181 | PG-13 |
| Living | $9,969,049 | $2,598,171 | 96 | 87 | Drama | 102 | 190 | PG-13 |
| Redeeming Love | $9,464,198 | $9,214,020 | 11 | 95 | Romance/History | 134 | 28 | PG-13 |
| Pearl | $9,423,445 | $9,423,445 | 92 | 82 | Horror/Mystery&Thriller | 102 | 166 | R |
| The Protégé | $8,737,253 | $7,446,823 | 62 | 82 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 109 | 113 | R |
| Lost Illusions | $8,634,973 | $126,391 | 93 | 88 | Drama/History | 149 | 54 | |
| Vikram Vedha | $8,234,166 | $1,589,362 | 79 | 95 | Action/Mystery&Thriller | 158 | 14 | |
| The Mauritanian | $7,527,030 | $836,536 | 75 | 84 | Drama/Mystery&Thriller | 129 | 217 | R |
| Judas and the Black Messiah | $7,478,009 | $5,478,009 | 97 | 95 | History/Drama | 126 | 350 | R |
Why Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office Mojo?
We chose the critics ratings from Rotten Tomatoes because it is the most widely known and trusted review aggregator.
We chose Box Office Mojo for our gross revenue numbers because it is the most widely used site for box office collections.
Glossary
A glossary of terms which will help you:
Worldwide Gross: The amount of money that the film made globally through box-office collections.
Domestic Gross: The amount of money that the film made in the United States of America through box-office collections.
Tomatometer: The Tomatometer score represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show. A Tomatometer score is calculated for a movie or TV show after it receives at least five reviews.
Audience Meter: The aggregate of the scores given by the audience who decided to go on to the Rotten Tomatoes website and express their thoughts regarding a film.
Genre: A genre is a stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film.
Running Time: The total duration of a film in minutes.
Number of reviews: The total number of critics reviews that the film recieved.
MPAA rating: The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture’s suitability for certain audiences based on its content.
How does Correlation work?
In statistics, when a set of data influences another, we say the two sets are correlated. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. We can’t say which set influenced the other. All we can say is they are correlated.
A correlation score can be boiled down to a number between -1 and 1.
I have broken it down to simplify the results for you as well as me:
| Score | Meaning |
| 0 | Zero correlation |
| ±0.5-0.7 | Weak |
| ±0.7-0.9 | There is some correlation |
| 0.9+ | Strong correlation |
1 means a perfect correlation. A +1 would mean that the data sets are directly and perfectly proportional to each other while a -1 would mean that the data sets are inversely and perfectly proportional to each other.
A score between ±0.7-0.9 means some correlation might exist between the two data sets, but it doesn’t tell us much more than that.
A score between ±0.5-0.7 means that there is a weak correlation and one can try increasing the sample size or streamlining the research. But one shouldn’t put any emphasis on this score.
A score around zero means no correlation exists. Of that we can be certain!
Now let’s head over to the results.
The results
Here are the results, tabulated:
| What is being compared | Correlation | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office Gross vs Tomatometer | 0.06 | No correlation |
| Worldwide Box Office Gross vs Tomatometer | 0.05 | No correlation |
| Domestic Box Office Gross vs Worldwide Box Office Gross | 0.94 | Strong correlation |
| Domestic Box Office Gross vs Audience Meter | 0.21 | No correlation |
| Worldwide Box Office Gross vs Audience Meter | 0.23 | No correlation |
| Domestic Box Office Gross vs Running Time | 0.19 | No correlation |
| Worldwide Box Office Gross vs Running Time | 0.28 | No correlation |
| Domestic Box Office Gross vs Number of Reviews | 0.49 | Very weak correlation |
| Tomatometer vs Audience Meter | 0.31 | No correlation |
These are the questions we want answered (click one to go directly to the explanation):
- Does the critics analysis and reviews affect the box office collections?
- Does the audience review affect the box office collections?
- What genres are the most successful at box office?
- Which films generate the greatest number of reviews?
- Is there a link between the MPAA rating and the box office collections?
- Is there any link between how critics see a film and how the audience watches it?
- Is there a relationship between how much a film earns in the US to its performance worldwide?
- Is there any link between the running time of a film to its box-office collections?
Tomatometer vs Box office collections
Let’s start by answering the main premise of this article. Do film ratings affect box office gross? Or, in other words, are the ratings and Box-office collections related in any way?
*Drum roll* The answer is NO.
Correlation Score
| 0.05 for Worldwide Gross Revenue vs Tomatometer Rating |
| 0.06 for Domestic Gross Revenue vs Tomatometer Rating |
Unsurprisingly, the Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes agrees with this finding. Check out his interview with Forbes here.
The ratings of the critics have no correlation with the amount of money that a film was making at the box office.
It very evidently shows that there is absolutely no impact of a critic’s ratings on the box office collections of these films.
Filmmaker’s takeaway
Filmmakers need not pay heed to what the reviewers and critics are saying about your film. Nor should you care if anyone reviews your film.
No critic can, individually or collectively, influence enough people to watch your film, to form a statistical impact.
So, it makes no sense to try and appease film reviewers and critics!
A better alternative would be to spend your marketing money on marketing your film’s trailer to grab more eyeballs organically.
Stop worrying or caring about the critic’s opinion. Your film is made and can’t be changed. If you can find a way to get it in front of a paying audience, they’ll decide the fate of your film.
Audience reviews vs Box office collections
Correlation Score
| 0.23 for Worldwide Gross Revenue vs Audience Meter |
| 0.21 for Domestic Gross Revenue vs Audience Meter |
There is no correlation between what the audience rates a film versus its box office collection.
The data here is not very reliable as a lot of industry people pay off troll farms and other such institutions to post good reviews.
Even if we assume that the ratings are genuine, not everyone who is watching the film can be bothered with posting a review about it online, and that those who do, form a statistically negligible part of the total audience.
Filmmaker’s takeaway
The audience score does not dictate box office performance, so quit trying to get people to review or rate your film. It hardly matters.
There are more important things to worry about, like, in how many screens are your film actually releasing in? A greater number of screens would greatly increase the chances of more footfalls, thus increasing the chances of it being a success at the box-office. There’s really nothing else you can do, other than good marketing.
What genres work best at the box office?
After some tedious sorting and crunching of data, this is what we arrived at:
We observe that Sci-Fi and Action are the top grossing genres of the last couple of years. But what we realized is what Rotten Tomatoes labels ‘Sci-Fi’ is mainly Action.
Kids and Family movies have a significant market share, so do films based on franchises, books, comics, etc.
Filmmaker’s Takeaway
The most important thing to understand here as a filmmaker is that shooting a professional level ‘Action’ film which can compete with the big studio standard requires a lot of investment. The same applies to an animated or fantasy film.
What we can discern from this, as the great masters have shown us, is the look at other creative genres. E.g., Horror has traditionally been a good jumping-off genre for beginner filmmakers. It does not require a huge amount of money yet there is a sizable audience eager to consume good horror.
Which films get the most reviews?
Correlation Score
| 0.41 for Worldwide Gross Revenue vs Number of Reviews |
| 0.49 for Domestic Gross Revenue vs Number of Reviews |
Another interesting pattern you can see is the films which have the highest amount of gross collections also have the most number of reviews.
Films which have a huge budget and a dedicated team for marketing will get noticed by more critics, hence more reviews.
Another possibility could be once a film becomes a blockbuster, all the critics rush out to review it.
Filmmaker’s takeaway
Ever wondered why film reviewers don’t review all films released that week? Not very democratic of them!
Stop going out of your way to get a review. Go out of your way to make your film as interesting as you can.
How does the MPAA rating affect Box Office collections?
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings mean the following:
| Rating | Definition |
| G | Nothing that would offend parents for viewing by children. |
| PG | Parents urged to give “parental guidance.” May contain some material parents might not like for their young children. |
| PG-13 | Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers. |
| R | Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them. |
| NC-17 | Clearly adult. Children are not admitted. |
Of the 200 films we analyzed, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings were as follows, when compared to box office gross:
Correlation Score
| 0.05 for Worldwide Gross Revenue vs MPAA rating |
| 0.06 for Domestic Gross Revenue vs MPAA rating |
Films that are accessible to most of the moviegoing public should work better at the box-office.
The gap between the critic and the audience
Correlation Score
| 0.31 Audience meter and Tomatometer |
Critics and the audience don’t really see eye to eye!
Filmmaker’s takeaway
No one can predict what film the audience will accept or reject, least of all, the critics.
Relation between Worldwide Gross Revenue and Domestic Gross Revenue
Correlation Score
| 0.94 Worldwide Gross Revenue vs Domestic Gross Revenue |
Finally, a strong correlation! This confirms that if a film does well in the US, it will do well worldwide, or vice versa.
Filmmaker’s takeaway
Nowadays there is a global audience for films. You are not bounded by any geographical limit.
Does run time affect box-office collections?
Correlation Score
| 0.28 for Worldwide Gross Revenue vs Running Time |
| 0.19 for Domestic Gross Revenue vs Running Time |
No surprises here. Most films stayed close to the 2 hour mark, which is the norm nowadays.
Fun Fact: 102 minutes and 107 minutes were two of the most occurring (luckiest) run times of the above list.
In a nutshell, the lesson that we can infer from this analysis is:
Don’t go out of your way to please reviewers or critics.
Other studies and their conclusions
Some research has already been done about what we’ve looked at in this article. A few studies you should definitely look into if you want to explore this premise more seriously:
| Paper/Article | Year | Do they agree or disagree with our findings? |
| How critical are critical reviews? (Research Paper) | 2003 | Doesn’t agree with our results. |
| Do Critical Reviews Affect Box Office Revenues Through Community Engagement and User Reviews? (Research Paper) | 2022 | Doesn’t agree with our results. |
| Has Rotten Tomatoes Ever Truly Mattered? (The Ringer’s article) | 2020 | Doesn’t agree with our results. |
| Film critics: Influencers or predictors? (Research Paper) | 1997 | Doesn’t agree with our results. |
| Do Movie Studios force smaller Gaps on movies feared to have worse Box Office returns? A study of Movie Embargoes and Ratings? (Research Paper) | 2020 | Doesn’t agree with our results. |
That’s it! If you’ve made it this far then tell us what you think in the comments below!
