Rotten Tomatoes Data Reveals The Most Overrated And Underrated Movies

A great interactive graphic highlighted on Reddit shows that critics' reviews aren't always accurate representations of popular opinion about a particular movie.

PhD student Ben Moore analyzed critic and public ratings from popular review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

The site assigns each movie a percentage based on the share of positive reviews it got from critics. Rotten Tomatoes also give an "audience" rating that shows how many users rated the movie positively.

Moore looks at the difference between critic reviews and audience ratings from the site.

The most overrated movies (films reviewed positively by critics but disliked by audiences) might surprise you:

1. "Spy Kids" (critics: 93%, audience: 45%)
2. "3 Backyards" (critics: 76%, audience: 31%)
3. "Stuart Little 2" (critics: 81%, audience: 40%)
4. "Momma's Man" (critics: 91%, audience: 50%)
5. "About a Boy" (critics: 93%, audience: 54%)

The kids' movies that made the list could be explained by the fact that most of the people who are rating the movies on Rotten Tomatoes probably aren't kids, and therefore not the target audience of the film.

But it's still surprising to see that "Spy Kids" was so beloved by critics.

Now here's a look at the most underrated movies from Moore's analysis:

1. "Facing the Giants" (critics: 13%, audience: 86%)
2. "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (critics: 16%, audience: 87%)
3. "Grandma's Boy" (critics: 18%, audience: 86%)
4. "Step Up" (critics: 19%, audience: 83%)
5. "Because I Said So" (critics: 5%, audience: 66%)

Many of the movies that made the "most underrated" list were popular with moviegoers but not necessarily considered great cinema.

You can check out the interactive graphic with dozens more movies at rCharts.

(via Reddit, lejeuneytunes)