“烂番茄”的威力有多大？

By Alissa Wilkinson

當你打开电影购票网站想看看近期有什么电影值得观看时，是否注意到相关页面几乎都会有每部电影的评分？这些网站评分是否会影响你对电影的选择呢？在美国，成立于2000年的烂番茄网是最主流的电影评价和交流社区之一，它的评价体系是如何影响人们对电影的选择以及电影票房收入的呢？

In February 2016， Rotten Tomatoes—the site that aggregates movie and TV critics opinions and tabulates a score thats “fresh” or “rotten”—took on an elevated level of importance.2 Thats when Rotten Tomatoes （along with its parent company Flixster） was acquired by Fandango， the website that sells advance movie tickets for many major cinema chains.3

People had been using Rotten Tomatoes to find movie reviews since it launched in 2000， but after Fandango acquired the site， it began posting“Tomatometer” scores next to movie ticket listings.4 Since then， studio execs have started to feel as if Rotten Tomatoes matters more than it used to—and in some cases， theyve rejiggered their marketing strategies accordingly.5

Its easy to see why anyone might assume that Rotten Tomatoes scores became more tightly linked to ticket sales， with potential audiences more likely to buy tickets for a movie with a higher score， and by extension， giving critics more power over the purchase of a ticket.

But thats not the whole story. And as most movie critics（including myself） will tell you， the correlation between Rotten Tomatoes scores， critical opinion， marketing tactics， and actual box office return is complicated. Its not a simple cause-and-effect situation.

Here are some questions that many people have about Rotten Tomatoes， and review aggregation more generally—and some facts to clear up the confusion.

How is a Rotten Tomatoes score calculated？

The score that Rotten Tomatoes assigns to a film corresponds to the percentage of critics whove judged the film to be “fresh，” meaning their opinion of it is more positive than negative.6 The idea is to quickly offer moviegoers a sense of critical consensus7.

“Our goal is to serve fans by giving them useful tools and one-stop8 access to critic reviews， user ratings， and entertainment news to help with their entertainment viewing decisions，” Jeff Voris， a vice president at Rotten Tomatoes， told me in an email.

The opinions of about 3，000 critics—a.k.a. the “Approved Tomatometer Critics” who have met a series of criteria set by Rotten Tomatoes—are included in the sites scores， though not every critic reviews every film， so any given score is more typically derived from a few hundred critics， or even less.9 The scores dont include just anyone who calls themselves a critic or has a movie blog； Rotten Tomatoes only aggregates critics who have been regularly publishing movie reviews with a reasonably widely read outlet for at least two years， and those critics must be “active，”meaning theyve published at least one review in the last year. The site also deems a subset of critics to be “top critics” and calculates a separate score that only includes them.10

Some critics （or staffers at their publications） upload their own reviews， choose their own pull quotes， and designate their review as “fresh”or “rotten.”11 Other critics （including myself） have their reviews uploaded， pull-quoted， and tagged as fresh or rotten by the Rotten Tomatoes staff. In the second case， if the staff isnt sure whether to tag a review as fresh or rotten， they reach out to the critic for clarification. And critics who dont agree with the sites designation can request that it be changed.

As the reviews of a given film accumulate， the Rotten Tomatoes score measures the percentage that are more positive than negative， and assigns an overall fresh or rotten rating to the movie. Scores of over 60 percent are considered fresh， and scores of 59 percent and under are rotten. To earn the coveted“designated fresh” seal，12 a film needs at least 40 reviews， 75 percent of which are fresh， and five of which are from “top” critics.

Does a movies Rotten Tomatoes score affect its box office earnings？

The short version： It can， but not necessarily in the ways you might think.

A good Rotten Tomatoes score indicates strong critical consensus， and that can be good for smaller films in particular. Its common for distributors to roll out such films slowly， opening them in a few key cities （usually New York and Los Angeles， and maybe a few others） to generate good buzz—not just from critics， but also on social media and through word of mouth.13 The result， they hope， is increased interest and ticket sales when the movie opens in other cities.

Get Out 14， for example， certainly profited from the 99 percent “fresh” score its earned since its limited opening. And The Big Sick15 became one of last summers most beloved films， helped along by its 98 percent rating. But a bad score for a small film can help ensure that it will close quickly， or play in fewer cities overall. Its potential box office earnings， in turn， will inevitably take a hit16.

Yet when it comes to blockbusters， franchises， and other big studio films （which usually open in many cities at once）， its much less clear how much a films Rotten Tomatoes score affects its box office tally.17 A good Rotten Tomatoes score， for example， doesnt necessarily guarantee a film will be a hit18. Atomic Blonde is“guaranteed fresh，” with a 77 percent rating， but it hasnt done very well at the box office despite being an action film starring Charlize Theron.19

Still， studios certainly seem to believe the score makes a difference. Studios blamed Rotten Tomatoes scores （and by extension， critics） when poorly reviewed movies like Pirates of the Caribbean： Dead Men Tell No Tales， Baywatch， and The Mummy performed below expectations at the box office.20

But that correlation doesnt really hold up. The Emoji Movie， for example， was critically panned， garnering an abysmal six percent Rotten Tomatoes score.21 But it still opened to $25 million in the US， which put it just behind the acclaimed Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk.22 And the more you think about it， the less surprising it is that plenty of people bought tickets to The Emoji Movie in spite of its bad press： Its an animated movie aimed at children that faced virtually no theatrical competition， and it opened during last summer， when kids are out of school. Great reviews might have inflated its numbers， but almost universally negative ones didnt seem to hurt it much.23

Its also worth noting that many films with low Rotten Tomatoes scores that also perform poorly in the US do just fine overseas， particularly in Asia. The Mummy gave Tom Cruise24 his biggest global opening ever. If there is a Rotten Tomatoes effect， it seems to only extend to the American market.

1. Rotten Tomatoes： 烂番茄网站，提供电影、电视剧的相关评论、资讯和新闻。

2. 2016年2月，烂番茄网变得更加举足轻重、炙手可热。这家网站综合了评论家对电影和电视剧的评价，为影片打出“新鲜”或“腐烂”的评分。aggregate： 聚集，综合；tabulate： 制成表格，列表显示；elevated：提高的，抬高的。

3. 当时，烂番茄网连同其母公司Flixster一同被范丹戈公司收购，范丹戈公司为许多大型连锁影院出售电影预售票。parent company： 总公司，母公司；acquire： 收购；Flixster： 一家美国社交电影网站，提供电影预告片以及即将上映的电影和票房信息；Fandango： 范丹戈，美国电影互联网售票公司。

4. launch： 创办；Tomatometer： 是烂番茄独创的词汇，意为“番茄尺”，字面上表示衡量番茄的腐烂程度，其实是衡量影视的好坏。

5. exec： 经理，管理人员；rejigger：〈美俚〉重新安排，更改。

6. 烂番茄给电影的评分取决于影评家给出“新鲜”评价的比例，“新鲜”即意味着他们对其的评价更趋正面。

7. consensus： 共识。

8. one-stop： 一站式的。

9. 网站对电影的评分包括约3，000位影评家的评价，他们也就是官方认证的烂番茄影评家，达到了烂番茄一系列的资历标准。然而，影评家不可能每部电影都看过，因此，一部电影的评分通常只来源于几百名影评家的评价，甚至更少。a.k.a.： also known as，亦称，又名。

10. deem： 认为，视作；subset： 一部分。

11. staffer： 职员（尤指编辑或记者）；pull quote： 从正文中选取常被用作副标题等的醒目引文；designate： 标示，标明。

12. coveted： 令人垂涎的，梦寐以求的；seal：印章。

13. distributor： 发行商；buzz： 口碑，评价；word of mouth： 口碑，口口相传。

14. Get Out： 《逃出绝命镇》，2017年美國惊悚片，电影获得了影评人与观众的一致好评，虽然成本仅450万美元，却获得了高达2.55亿美元的票房收入。

15. The Big Sick： 《大病》，2017年美国爱情电影，改编自真实故事，讲述了一个巴基斯坦移民在美国的生活。

16. take a hit： 遭受打击，受到影响。

17. blockbuster： 流行大片，大制作影片；franchise：系列电影；box office tally： 票房收入。

18. hit： 成功且轰动一时的电影或演出等。

19. Atomic Blonde： 《极寒之城》，2017年美国间谍动作惊悚片；Charlize Theron： 查理兹·塞隆，南非女演员及联合国亲善大使，南非第一位奥斯卡金像奖得主。

20. Pirates of the Caribbean： Dead Men Tell No Tales：《加勒比海盗5：死无对证》，美国奇幻海盗冒险电影；Baywatch：《海滩游侠》，美国动作喜剧片；The Mummy：《新木乃伊》，美国动作冒险奇幻片，为1999年电影《木乃伊》和“木乃伊系列电影”的重启版。

21. 例如，《表情奇幻冒险》受到了严厉的批评，在烂番茄上得到了极低的6%的好评率。The Emoji Movie： 《表情奇幻冒险》，美国动画喜剧电影；pan： 严厉批评；garner： 得到，获得；abysmal： // 糟糕透顶的。

22. acclaimed： 广受好评的；Christopher Nolan：克里斯托弗·诺兰，英国男导演、编剧及监制，被认为是21世纪最成功和最受好评的电影导演之一，他的10部电影在全球获得超过47亿美元的票房，囊括26项奥斯卡提名和六项大奖；Dunkirk： 《敦刻尔克》，2017年由英国、法国、美国及荷兰合拍的战争电影，由克里斯托弗·诺兰执导和编剧。

23. 高度的好评未必能提升一部影片的票房收入，但普遍负面的评价似乎也影响甚微。inflate：扩大，提高。

24. Tom Cruise： 汤姆·克鲁斯，美国男演员及电影制片人，电影《新木乃伊》主演。