Everyone’s a Critic
for DATUM Magazine 03/2018
How do users’ and critics’ ratings differ?
After having done a series of heavier topics, I wanted to explore a topic related to entertainment. I always wondered whether you should trust users or critics more, when choosing movies to watch. Or did that not matter at all?
Rotten tomatoes data
A big RottenTomatoes dataset on movie ratings by critics and users allowed me to compare thousands of films. Turns out, they agree on some films and disagree on others. Sequels were generally far more popular with fans than with critics, while critics rated classics higher.
The big picture
I included a sample of some films that I thought illustrated the patterns in the data well, while pointing out some historical and dataset metadata. Graphically, I wanted to display the entire dataset on a double page, in a way that could be understood easily, yet reminded the viewer of a shape connected to film.
Generally, critics were less generous with their ratings in general. They are critics after all, so that wasn’t all too surprising. Also, I found that there are a large number of high-earning, poorly-rated films, but also low-grossing, well-rated films.