Director Brett Ratner: "Rotten Tomatoes Is the ‘Destruction’ Of Our Business. Film Criticism Has Disappeared"



"The worst thing that we have in today’s movie culture is Rotten Tomatoes, I think it’s the destruction of our business. I have such respect and admiration for film criticism.I have such respect and admiration for film criticism. When I was growing up film criticism was a real art. And there was intellect that went into that. And you would read Pauline’s Kael’s reviews, or some others, and that doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s about a number. A compounded number of how many positives vs. negatives. Now it’s about, ‘What’s your Rotten Tomatoes score?’ And that’s sad, because the Rotten Tomatoes score was so low on Batman v Superman I think it put a cloud over a movie that was incredibly successful. […] What’s sad is film criticism has disappeared. It’s really sad.”

“People don’t realize what goes into making a movie like thatIt’s mind-blowing. It’s just insane, it’s hurting the business, it’s getting people to not see a movie. In Middle America it’s, ‘Oh, it’s a low Rotten Tomatoes score so I’m not going to go see it because it must suck.’ But that number is an aggregate and one that nobody can figure out exactly what it means, and it’s not always correct. I’ve seen some great movies with really abysmal Rotten Tomatoes scores. What’s sad is film criticism has disappeared. It’s really sad.”


I don't think, to a certain extent, he's wrong about film criticism's current state, but, dude, don't use Batman vs Superman's box-office as an example. I think it being a bad movie is why the backlash happened. That's why review aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic matter, they really don't care about box-office intake or success. That's where sites like RT and MC matter, they benefit smaller-scaled independent films and foreign-language imports. You can't discount how important they have probably been for those smaller studio markets.

Also, I just can't see Pauline Kael ever liking the current influx of superhero movies in the market. Putting Pauline Kael and Batman v Superman as arguments in the same sentence is preposterous. Oh, By the way, Ratner's own company RatPac Entertainment co-financed Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Hmmm ....


    [EW]