Iâd like to see a scholarly article â or just a blog post, or a snarky reply, really â on the differences between the rankings displayed on RottenTomatoes and IMDB. And other ranking sites as well.
RottenTomatoes is weighted much more by critics, and IMDB I assume is random users, right? RTâs list looks much more âcritically acclaimed,â while IMDBâs looks âpopular.â
Other than a friendâs husband who seems to like watching the same entertainment I do, Netflix is my next best pal at anticipating what I will and wonât like in films. Really, itâs uncanny. Rotten Tomatoes? - not so much. Iâm also a full star less pleased in the rating of films than those âin my areaâ. But Iâm not having any trouble finding films to watch, there are 112 films in my queue, all never seen before, rated three stars or more, and Iâm an avid fan of the medium. Iâve heard people complain that they canât find anything on Netflix to watch. Needless to say, Iâm completely puzzled by this. The Netflix library is ginormous.
Itâs left as an exercise for the reader as to which of those two types of ratings would be more accurate for the average viewer. 
Anyone know if there is some insight into the region youâre in?
Just because âNetflixâ has it, doesnât mean Netflix in [my country] has it.
IMDB top 250 is indeed âpopularâ. It is heavily weighted to the movies of the last 10 years and appears to sway towards the current notion that the last thing you enjoyed was âthe best thing everâ. I stopped paying attention to it after repeatedly seeing outstanding classic films get bumped off in favor of the new hotness.
In what universe is The Dark Knight the 4th best movie of all time?
It would be interesting to have a movie rating site where users would have to rate movies on a bell curve with only one movie rated a 10. If you wanted to rate your new favorite thing a â10â, youâd have to downgrade the last one to one of the limited number of â9.5â spots.
I use instantwatcher.com, which offers a lot more granularity (though not IMDB ratings). Mostly I check to see whatâs been added every day, but you can search by genre, NYT criticsâ picks, worst-rated, etc.
Aaaaand thatâs how I just learned they added Snowpiercer today. Woot.
A very interesting idea. It wouldnât be too hard to code.
Although Iâm not certain about a bell curve. Sure, you might have only one 10.0, but only one 1.0? There is a very big floor effect with movies, as with other artwork. Iâd say a half-bell (is there a term for that?). Stuff as many movies as you want at the bottom of the pile, but you have to be more and more judicious as you rank higher.
But of course itâs very difficult to rank movies on a single dimension â you might have your 10.0 classic drama and your 10.0 screwball comedy. So I guess youâll need to have several ranked lists, for different genres or situationsâŚ
I just created a username (lost my old one?), to post about instant watcher. Glad someone beat me to it. Itâs the best. Although I do like the simple design of whatisonnetflix.
Unfortunately itâs this universe. I think weâre in the wrong one.
If they were guides to restaurants rather than movies, RottenTomatoes would highlight Michelin Star establishments, and IMDB would recommend McDonaldâs.
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