Every film in the catalogue carrying both a Tomatometer and an audience score, sorted by the distance between them. The list is not the one either side would predict.
Studios often behave as though they possess an innate understanding of public taste, yet the provided figures suggest a profound lack of synchronicity. While reviewers frequently heap praise upon highbrow dramas that leave the average viewer cold, several entries show a chasm separating professional opinion and popular acclaim. This disparity is particularly evident in the blockbuster category, where a specific title enjoys the dubious honour of the widest gap in the table.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, we find a cluster of films that managed to bore every demographic with equal efficiency. These are the middling offerings where the needle barely flickers, indicating a rare moment of total agreement across the board. It seems that despite all the focus groups and marketing budgets, the industry remains baffled by the fact that throwing money at a screen does not guarantee a warm reception.
Audiences liked it, critics did not
| Film | Critics | Audience | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| After We Collided (2020) | 13 | 93 | +80 |
| The Silencing (2020) | 17 | 90 | +73 |
| Blacklight (2022) | 11 | 82 | +71 |
| Grandma's Boy (2006) | 16 | 85 | +69 |
| Life Itself (2018) | 14 | 83 | +69 |
| Drop Dead Fred (1991) | 11 | 77 | +66 |
| The Boondock Saints (1999) | 27 | 91 | +64 |
| God's Not Dead (2014) | 12 | 75 | +63 |
The widest gaps in the audience's favour, among films carrying a real score on both sides with at least 25,000 IMDb votes (n = 5,241).
Critics liked it, audiences did not
| Film | Critics | Audience | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuties (2020) | 87 | 15 | -72 |
| Gunday (2014) | 60 | 9 | -51 |
| Spy Kids (2001) | 93 | 47 | -46 |
| Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) | 99 | 54 | -45 |
| The Card Counter (2021) | 87 | 42 | -45 |
| Sharknado (2013) | 78 | 33 | -45 |
| It Comes at Night (2017) | 88 | 44 | -44 |
| Ad Astra (2019) | 83 | 40 | -43 |
The same measurement, reversed.
It is not evenly spread
| Genre | Films | Median gap |
|---|---|---|
| Action | 2,454 | +5 |
| Comedy | 3,656 | 0 |
| Adventure | 1,029 | -1 |
| Biography | 924 | -2 |
| Animation | 74 | -3 |
| Drama | 3,041 | -4 |
| Crime | 1,136 | -4 |
| Horror | 623 | -5 |
Median gap between audience score and Tomatometer, by primary genre, across every film carrying both (n = 13,602). A positive number means the audience scored it higher.
A gap is not a verdict on either party. It is a measurement of two populations watching for different reasons, and the genres at the top of that last table are the ones where those reasons diverge furthest.
Every figure above is computed from the Hollywood Metrics catalogue of 74,571 films at the time of publication, with the sample size and the filters stated under each table. Nothing here is estimated, and nothing here is rounded to make a point. Read how we work or check our forecasting record.
