With the first reviews embargoed until late Tuesday and early Wednesday, fans eagerly awaiting the release of Justice League have had to subsist on critics’ social media comments since Friday. Nevertheless, this hasn’t stopped audiences from reveling in their exdcitement for the film online — nor has it stunted the film’s stars from discussing potential sequels and future films in the DC Comics cinematic universe. Yet the movie’s later-than-usual review embargo has also produced another interesting side effect — a significantly delayed score from Rotten Tomatoes.
The occasionally controversial website‘s use of the so-called “Tomatometer,” which they used to calculate a film’s score by averaging both positive and negative reviews from certified critics, depends on the release of said critics’ reviews. As Screen Rant first noted, these calculations won’t be able to take shape until the Justice League reviews are officially allowed to see the light of day — which will, ironically, occur during the Midnight hours between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. However, instead of determining and posting the movie’s score on Wednesday, the website has delayed its publication until early Thursday.
As Screen Rant points out, Justice League won’t be the first film to get such a delayed Rotten Tomatoes score. Considering the website’s low scores for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad, they may be trying to avoid significant backlash, as occurred with both films’ scores. Then again, seeing as how Wonder Woman blew these movies (and many others) out of the water with its score, maybe Justice League fans have nothing to worry about. One of the more telling coincidences concerns Warner Bros. corporate relations with Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company. They own a minority stake in it.
(Via Screen Rant)