Analyzing Rotten Tomatoes Data

June 13, 2011 in Daily Bulletin

Slate Magazine was granted access to Rotten Tomatoes’ vast movie database and they found some interesting results about movies released since 1985. They include:

  • The average actor has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 55% in his first film it then steadily drops to 50% for his fourth film and it stays there for the rest of his career
  • Director’s first films are also given an average score of 55%. But instead of getting worse with time they seem to get better with experience. By the eight film a director’s rating jumps to 63% and after that it jumps again to stay between 80% and 90% from the twelfth film onwards.
  • French actor Daniel Auteuil was the highest rated actor. John Ratzenberger, a voice actor frequently seen in Pixar films, is the highest rated American actor.
  • Arsinée Khanjian was the best actress
  • Chuck Norris and Jennifer Love Hewitt won worst actor and worst actress respectively
  • Mike Leigh with a rating of 92.1% is the best director. Dennis Dugan was the worst
  • Dakota Fanning was the most improved actress

The article has a lot more. Slate also has an interactive tool where you can compare the careers of any major actor or director since 1985.

Source: Slate