Here's another example of the disconnect between Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
The review embargo lifted on “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which has an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, but sits at a tamer 64 on Metacritic. These reviews are slightly lower than Marvel’s most recent 2025 release, “Thunderbolts,” which earned a 68 on MC and 88% on RT.
Rotten Tomatoes, often seen as less credible, includes a mix of loosely vetted “critics,” bloggers, and YouTubers. In contrast, Metacritic focuses more on established voices from traditional media outlets, trade publications, and seasoned film critics.
Rotten Tomatoes recently eliminated all average ratings, including those from critics, reducing its system to a basic "fresh" or "rotten" label. This oversimplifies critical assessments and makes the overall evaluation even more misleading.
The average critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes played a crucial role in offering a more nuanced understanding of critical consensus than the Tomatometer alone. The Tomatometer alone just indicates the percentage of positive reviews, it doesn’t capture the intensity of those opinions. The average rating revealed whether critics were mildly positive or genuinely enthusiastic.
Still, people are going to run with the 88% score that ‘Fantastic Four’ has earned, claiming it’s receiving near-universal acclaim—when that’s far from the reality.
Still, that strong “fresh” rating will likely help boost turnout when the film officially opens this weekend. While some early projections were overly optimistic—touting a possible $130M debut—I’ve heard Disney quietly reached out to the trades to temper expectations, adjusting forecasts to the $100–$110M range.
If ‘Fantastic Four’ lands within that window, it’ll help extend the summer box office hot streak, following the success of “Superman,” “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” “Lilo & Stitch,” “Mission: Impossible 8” and “F1.”