15 Movies The Audience Loved, But Critics Loathed (Or Vice Versa)

Somehow, critics thought Sausage Party was a cinematic work of art.

November 16, 2022

Until artificial intelligence and hologram technology get to the point where scientists can produce a sentient recreation of Roger Ebert and/or Gene Siskel, the truest source of film criticism we have is… Rotten Tomatoes. There, critics have their finger on the pulse of modern cinema, and they're in lockstep with the moviegoing public.

Take Chicken Run, for example, which critics certified fresh, at a whopping 97%. Fans agreed, giving it an average score of… oh. 65%. Okay, whatever, that's technically a passing grade by most metrics.

Let's look instead at Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Critics called it “aimless, repetitive, and devoid of character development,” giving it only 49%. Once again, audiences agreed, rating it… 89%.

Okay, last try. Black Adam! We all saw the headlines: Black Adam was universally despised, and proved once and for all that DC will never have a non-Batman hit. Critics, of course, gave it a putrid score of 40%, while audiences absolutely panned it at… 89%.

Huh. If I didn't know any better, I'd think the opinions of 2-300 industry insiders in no way represent what the actual moviegoing public thinks.