Rotten Tomatoes launches Popcornmeter and Verified Hot badge to better represent audience opinions and combat review bombing.
Rotten Tomatoes has launched the Popcornmeter and the Verified Hot badge as part of a significant update to its audience score system. The new Popcornmeter score system classifies films based on user ratings: those with a 3.5-star rating (60%) or higher are labeled "Fresh," while those below this threshold receive a "Stale" label. If a movie achieves a 60% rating or higher on the Popcornmeter, it earns a "Hot" red popcorn bucket logo. The Verified Hot badge, awarded to films with a 90% or higher Verified Audience Score, signifies the highest-rated audience opinions and aims to complement the existing "Certified Fresh" badge awarded to films with high critic reviews. This new rating system aims to better represent audience opinions and reduce the impact of review bombing, which previously exploited the original audience score feature. The Popcornmeter and Verified Hot badge will be applied to select summer films and retroactively awarded to over 200 titles.