“爛番茄”的威力有多大？

By Alissa Wilkinson

當你打開電影購票網站想看看近期有什么電影值得觀看時，是否注意到相關頁面幾乎都會有每部電影的評分？這些網站評分是否會影響你對電影的選擇呢？在美國，成立于2000年的爛番茄網是最主流的電影評價和交流社區之一，它的評價體系是如何影響人們對電影的選擇以及電影票房收入的呢？

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： 爛番茄網站，提供電影、電視劇的相關評論、資訊和新聞。

2. 2016年2月，爛番茄網變得更加舉足輕重、炙手可熱。這家網站綜合了評論家對電影和電視劇的評價，為影片打出“新鮮”或“腐爛”的評分。aggregate： 聚集，綜合；tabulate： 制成表格，列表顯示；elevated：提高的，抬高的。

3. 當時，爛番茄網連同其母公司Flixster一同被范丹戈公司收購，范丹戈公司為許多大型連鎖影院出售電影預售票。parent company： 總公司，母公司；acquire： 收購；Flixster： 一家美國社交電影網站，提供電影預告片以及即將上映的電影和票房信息；Fandango： 范丹戈，美國電影互聯網售票公司。

4. launch： 創辦；Tomatometer： 是爛番茄獨創的詞匯，意為“番茄尺”，字面上表示衡量番茄的腐爛程度，其實是衡量影視的好壞。

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

6. 爛番茄給電影的評分取決于影評家給出“新鮮”評價的比例，“新鮮”即意味著他們對其的評價更趨正面。

7. consensus： 共識。

8. one-stop： 一站式的。

9. 網站對電影的評分包括約3，000位影評家的評價，他們也就是官方認證的爛番茄影評家，達到了爛番茄一系列的資歷標準。然而，影評家不可能每部電影都看過，因此，一部電影的評分通常只來源于幾百名影評家的評價，甚至更少。a.k.a.： also known as，亦稱，又名。

10. deem： 認為，視作；subset： 一部分。

11. staffer： 職員（尤指編輯或記者）；pull quote： 從正文中選取常被用作副標題等的醒目引文；designate： 標示，標明。

12. coveted： 令人垂涎的，夢寐以求的；seal：印章。

13. distributor： 發行商；buzz： 口碑，評價；word of mouth： 口碑，口口相傳。

14. Get Out： 《逃出絕命鎮》，2017年美國驚悚片，電影獲得了影評人與觀眾的一致好評，雖然成本僅450萬美元，卻獲得了高達2.55億美元的票房收入。

15. The Big Sick： 《大病》，2017年美國愛情電影，改編自真實故事，講述了一個巴基斯坦移民在美國的生活。

16. take a hit： 遭受打擊，受到影響。

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

18. hit： 成功且轟動一時的電影或演出等。

19. Atomic Blonde： 《極寒之城》，2017年美國間諜動作驚悚片；Charlize Theron： 查理茲·塞隆，南非女演員及聯合國親善大使，南非第一位奧斯卡金像獎得主。

20. Pirates of the Caribbean： Dead Men Tell No Tales：《加勒比海盜5：死無對證》，美國奇幻海盜冒險電影；Baywatch：《海灘游俠》，美國動作喜劇片；The Mummy：《新木乃伊》，美國動作冒險奇幻片，為1999年電影《木乃伊》和“木乃伊系列電影”的重啟版。

21. 例如，《表情奇幻冒險》受到了嚴厲的批評，在爛番茄上得到了極低的6%的好評率。The Emoji Movie： 《表情奇幻冒險》，美國動畫喜劇電影；pan： 嚴厲批評；garner： 得到，獲得；abysmal： // 糟糕透頂的。

22. acclaimed： 廣受好評的；Christopher Nolan：克里斯托弗·諾蘭，英國男導演、編劇及監制，被認為是21世紀最成功和最受好評的電影導演之一，他的10部電影在全球獲得超過47億美元的票房，囊括26項奧斯卡提名和六項大獎；Dunkirk： 《敦刻爾克》，2017年由英國、法國、美國及荷蘭合拍的戰爭電影，由克里斯托弗·諾蘭執導和編劇。

23. 高度的好評未必能提升一部影片的票房收入，但普遍負面的評價似乎也影響甚微。inflate：擴大，提高。

24. Tom Cruise： 湯姆·克魯斯，美國男演員及電影制片人，電影《新木乃伊》主演。