Movies Critics Hated, But Audiences Loved

TL;DR: With the help of data from IMDB, I compiled a list of movies with the biggest "audience likes it" to "critics like it" ratio.

I was thinking of a good place to publish this information. Then I realized, "Oh wait, I have a blog, don't I?"

When Critics Hate It, But I Love It

Movie websites such as RottenTomatoes.com often give at least two different ratings for a given movie: what critics rated it, and what audiences rated it.  Sometimes a movie will seemingly please both audiences and critics.  Sometimes, both audiences and critics will overwhelmingly dislike a film. But then there are the other times where the critics overwhelmingly hate a movie, but the audiences love it, or vice-versa. 

In recent years, I've noticed that the movies I end up loving a lot are typically the ones that critics hate and audiences love.  Sometime in 2019 I started using this as a rule of thumb for deciding whether to see a new movie, and it proved to be pretty reliable.  In fact, the bigger that ratio of audience rating to critics' rating, the more I liked the movie.  I guess this isn't too surprising for me, because there are likewise many books and music albums I absolutely love which critics have always trashed.

I was curious to see what other movies there may be that had very low ratings from critics and very high ratings from general viewers.  So I decided to do some coding and hacking to grab online information from lots of movies, and crunch the numbers.

Getting the Data

Without getting too geeky about the coding details: I read that RottenTomatoes.com had its own API that developers could use for the precise purpose of getting their movie data and doing analysis on it.  Long story short, that's not so easily obtainable these days. 

I found that the good ol' Internet Movie Database site (IMDB.com) had the information that I need. Movies on IMDB have a "user ratings" score. Users can create an IMDB account, log in, and give a particular movie a rating from 0 to 10.  Most movies on IMDB also have a critics rating in the form of a "Metascore".  This is a number provided by Metacritic.com where they give "a weighted average of reviews from top critics and publications for a given movie". IMDB has a list of the top 250 rated movies.  These are the movies which got the overall highest viewer ratings.  With a little more searching though, you can find a list of the top 1000!  So I wrote a script to go through this list, grab the respective viewer and critic ratings for each title, and then see which ones has the biggest audience to critic rating ratio.

Before I tell you the results, there are some disclaimers you should know about the top 1000 list:

• The list only includes full-length feature films. Shorts, TV movies, and documentaries are not included.
• IMDB ranks the movies not just by the ratings themselves, but "a formula which includes the number of ratings each movie received from users, and value of ratings received from regular users".  I guess this is to help prevent some movie maker from making hundreds of fake accounts in order to rate their own movie 10 stars.
• IMDB also says, "To be included on the list, a movie must receive ratings from at least 25000 users".  This is understandable, because otherwise I'm sure there are obscure movies which few people have heard of, but they got a "10 star" rating because there were only one or two people who rated it, and gave it 10 stars because they're the sort of people who liked the movie enough in the first place to want to look it up and rate it. Or likewise, movies that have really low ratings due to only getting a handful of reviewers.
• About 160 of the top 1000 movies didn't have any critic reviews. These included a lot of old movies (Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), etc.  I guess this makes sense, because modern critics don't often go back to review and rate old movies, just new ones as they come.  So I just omitted these ones. 
• One inherent problem with ratings in general is that people tend to only rate things they feel strongly about.  Most people who rate things, whether it's movies or something else, want to give it either zero stars, or 10 out of 10.  But we'll just see what the list gives us anyway.

Results

Here are the top results I found:

1. I Am Sam (2001).  With an average user rating of 77% (7.7 stars out of 10), and an average critic rating of 28% (Metacritic rating of 28 out of 100), this film easily had the biggest ratio of viewer appeal to critic appeal. 
2. The Butterfly Effect (2004). Users 76% vs. critics 30%.  This is one I actually saw.  I guess not surprisingly, I enjoyed it.
3. Elite Squad (2007). 81% vs. critics 33%.  In fact, if we go by absolute difference (subtraction) instead of ratio (division), this one would be #2.
4. Seven Pounds (2008). 76% vs. critics 36%.  I don't think I ever heard of this film, to be honest.
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).  76% vs. critics 41%. I had no idea this cult film was hated by critics.  But from this point on, the ratio goes under 2.0.
6. The Boondock Saints (1999). 78% vs. critics 44%. 
7. Predator (1987). 78% vs. critics 45%. Critics tend to hate action movies, for some reason.
8. Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982).  81% vs. critics 47%. Yes, critics also tend to hate band films like this too.
9. Flipped (I) (2010). 77% vs. critics 45%.
10. Blood In, Blood Out (1993). Users 80% vs. critics 47%.
11. Love Me If You Dare (2003). Users 76% vs. critics 45%.
12. Saw (2004). Users 76% vs. critics 46%.  I'm not surprised.  And I do love this franchise.
13. Man on Fire (2004). Users 77% vs. critics 47%.
14. Primal Fear (1996). Users 77% vs. critics 47%.
15. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). Users 80% vs. critics 49%.  I had feared the opposite would happen with this movie.
16. Remember the Titans (2000). Users 78% vs. critics 48%.
17. My Name Is Khan (2010). Users 80% vs. critics 50%.
18. The Best Offer (2013). Users 78% vs. critics 49%.
19. Tombstone (1993). Users 78% vs. critics 50%.
20. Sleepers (1996). Users 76% vs. critics 49%.
21. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). Users 76% vs. critics 49%.
22. The Gentlemen (2019). Users 79% vs. critics 51%.
23. Taken (I) (2008). Users 78% vs. critics 51%.
24. Adam's Apples (2005). Users 78% vs. critics 51%.
25. Kelly's Heroes (1970). Users 76% vs. critics 50%.

After this, the critics' ratings tend to be over 50%, and thus the general notion of "Critics hated it but audiences loved it" gets less intense.  But for the sake of completion, here are the rest up to 100. I've boldfaced a few that stick out to me personally, either because "Yeah, I figured this would be here" or "Damn, I didn't realize critics disliked this one".

26. Snatch (2000). Users 83% vs. critics 55%.
27. The Intouchables (2011). Users 85% vs. critics 57%.
28. Kal ho naa ho (2003). Users 80% vs. critics 54%.
29. Detachment (2011). Users 77% vs. critics 52%.
30. The Fifth Element (1997). Users 77% vs. critics 52%.
31. The Notebook (2004). Users 78% vs. critics 53%.
32. Dead Man's Shoes (2004). Users 76% vs. critics 52%.
33. 300 (2006). Users 76% vs. critics 52%.
34. Blow (2001). Users 76% vs. critics 52%.
35. Lost Highway (1997). Users 76% vs. critics 52%.
36. Life Is Beautiful (1997). Users 86% vs. critics 59%.
37. Lucky Number Slevin (2006). Users 77% vs. critics 53%.
38. Joker (2019). Users 85% vs. critics 59%.
39. The Blind Side (2009). Users 76% vs. critics 53%.
40. Enemy at the Gates (2001). Users 76% vs. critics 53%.
41. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). Users 83% vs. critics 58%.
42. The Name of the Rose (1986). Users 77% vs. critics 54%.
43. The Thing (1982). Users 81% vs. critics 57%.
44. About Time (I) (2013). Users 78% vs. critics 55%.
45. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008). Users 78% vs. critics 55%.
46. The Sandlot (1993). Users 78% vs. critics 55%.
47. The Chorus (2004). Users 79% vs. critics 56%.
48. The Green Mile (1999). Users 86% vs. critics 61%.
49. The Last Samurai (2003). Users 77% vs. critics 55%.
50. La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998). Users 81% vs. critics 58%.
51. Love Actually (2003). Users 76% vs. critics 55%.
52. Big Fish (2003). Users 80% vs. critics 58%.
53. Papillon (1973). Users 80% vs. critics 58%.
54. American History X (1998). Users 85% vs. critics 62%.
55. Back to the Future Part II (1989). Users 78% vs. critics 57%.
56. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). Users 82% vs. critics 60%.
57. Jojo Rabbit (2019). Users 79% vs. critics 58%.
58. Watchmen (2009). Users 76% vs. critics 56%.
59. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002). Users 76% vs. critics 56%.
60. Falling Down (1993). Users 76% vs. critics 56%.
61. Ip Man (2008). Users 80% vs. critics 59%.
62. Scent of a Woman (1992). Users 80% vs. critics 59%.
63. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). Users 78% vs. critics 58%.
64. Joint Security Area (2000). Users 78% vs. critics 58%.
65. True Romance (1993). Users 79% vs. critics 59%.
66. Fight Club (1999). Users 88% vs. critics 66%.
67. Dogville (2003). Users 80% vs. critics 60%.
68. Sherlock Holmes (2009). Users 76% vs. critics 57%.
69. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Users 76% vs. critics 57%.
70. Robin Hood (1973). Users 76% vs. critics 57%.
71. Léon: The Professional (1994). Users 85% vs. critics 64%.
72. Se7en (1995). Users 86% vs. critics 65%.
73. V for Vendetta (2005). Users 82% vs. critics 62%.
74. The Blues Brothers (1980). Users 79% vs. critics 60%.
75. Dancer in the Dark (2000). Users 80% vs. critics 61%.
76. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995). Users 76% vs. critics 58%.
77. The Hunt for Red October (1990). Users 76% vs. critics 58%.
78. The Help (2011). Users 81% vs. critics 62%.
79. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001). Users 79% vs. critics 61%.
80. Midnight Express (1978). Users 76% vs. critics 59%.
81. The Prestige (2006). Users 85% vs. critics 66%.
82. Shutter Island (2010). Users 81% vs. critics 63%.
83. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). Users 77% vs. critics 60%.
84. The Experiment (2001). Users 77% vs. critics 60%.
85. Evil (2003). Users 78% vs. critics 61%.
86. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). Users 78% vs. critics 61%.
87. The Game (1997). Users 78% vs. critics 61%.
88. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Users 78% vs. critics 61%.
89. Scarface (1983). Users 83% vs. critics 65%.
90. Harold and Maude (1971). Users 79% vs. critics 62%.
91. The Shining (1980). Users 84% vs. critics 66%.
92. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Users 80% vs. critics 63%.
93. The Sound of Music (1965). Users 80% vs. critics 63%.
94. Gladiator (2000). Users 85% vs. critics 67%.
95. Gifted (2017). Users 76% vs. critics 60%.
96. The Godfather: Part III (1990). Users 76% vs. critics 60%.
97. Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004). Users 81% vs. critics 64%.
98. The Sixth Sense (1999). Users 81% vs. critics 64%.
99. The Machinist (2004). Users 77% vs. critics 61%.
100. First Blood (1982). Users 77% vs. critics 61%.

Loved by Critics, Hated By Audiences

To find the opposite, namely movies that had a high critic rating but a low audience rating, I switched over to the bottom 1000 list.  At first I tried looking for the highest ratio of critic ratings to audience ratings, but this wasn't too helpful, since for example a movie where the audience gave it a 1 out of 10 but critics gave it a 2 out of 10 would technically mean the critics liked it twice as much, but more accurately it means both groups hated it.  So I just took a look at movies from the bottom-1000 list that still got a critic rating of 65% or higher:

• Spy Kids (2001). Users: 55%, critics: 71%.
• Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009). Users: 52%, critics: 70%.
• Cult of Chucky (2017). Users: 52%, critics: 69%.
• The Monster (2016). Users: 54%, critics: 69%.
• I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016). Users: 45%, critics: 68%.  This movie has the biggest whole difference of any in the list.
• Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002). Users: 51%, critics: 66%.
• Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). Users: 54%, critics: 66%.
• The Girlfriend Experience (2009). Users: 55%, critics: 66%.
• Stuart Little 2 (2002). Users: 55%, critics: 66%.
• The Bling Ring (2013). Users: 56%, critics: 66%.

Oddly enough, I also spotted a number of movies elsewhere in the bottom 1000 list which I personally liked.  Not too surprisingly, they tended to get low ratings from critics.  Also, much like the top 1000 list, keep in mind that the bottom 1000 list only considers movies that have gotten a lot of ratings.  I'm sure you can find plenty of obscure B-movies which are even worse that anything in the bottom 1000 list, but for those ones it would be rare to find many ratings one way or another.

Equally liked by Audiences and Critics

Finally, I decided to go back to the top 1000 list and look for movies whose audience and critic ratings were equal.  Here were the only matches:

• The Godfather: Part II (1974) - 90%
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - 87%
• The Departed (2006) - 85%
• The Pianist (2002) - 85%
• The Sting (1973) - 83%
• Downfall (2004) - 82%
• Ford v Ferrari (2019) - 81%
• The Martian (2015) - 80%
• Dallas Buyers Club (2013) - 80%
• Casino Royale (2006) - 80%
• Central Station (1998) - 80%
• Young Frankenstein (1974) - 80%
• Sing Street (2016) - 79%
• Life of Pi (2012) - 79%
• Iron Man (2008) - 79%
• The Untouchables (1987) - 79%
• Drive (I) (2011) - 78%
• Glory (1989) - 78%
• The Color Purple (1985) - 78%
• The Verdict (1982) - 77%
• Zulu (1964) - 77%
• Superbad (2007) - 76%
• Inside Man (2006) - 76%
• A Very Long Engagement (2004) - 76%
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - 76%
• When Harry Met Sally... (1989) 76%
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) - 76%
• The Secret of NIMH (1982) - 76%
• Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - 76%

Conclusion

Do critics tend to think in a certain collective way?  Do they use certain judging criteria which most general viewers don't?  Do some movies get made purely to appeal to critics?  I'm sure you can find other articles out there exploring these sorts of questions. I still wonder why the critics' fear of Joker led to having policeman standing around at every screening, including the one I myself went to.  Regardless, the first list gives me some titles I'm now curious to see.