Ratings
TMDB, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes: What Each Rating Actually Measures
Updated Sep 16, 2026
A movie can be "82% on Rotten Tomatoes," "7.4 on IMDb," and "6.9 on TMDB" at the same time, and none of those numbers are wrong — they're measuring different things.
TMDB — a straightforward audience average
The Movie Database's rating is a weighted average of user ratings submitted directly on the site, scored 0–10. It has no critic/audience split and no separate "top critics" tier — one number, one methodology, refreshed continuously as new ratings come in.
IMDb — the largest sample size, also 0–10
IMDb's rating is also a weighted user average, but pulled from a much larger, longer-running user base (IMDb predates most streaming services). Its weighting formula isn't fully public, and it's known to down-weight ballot-stuffing and unusual voting patterns, which is part of why an IMDb score can move slightly even without new votes.
Rotten Tomatoes — two numbers, not one, and neither is an average of ratings
This is the one most likely to be misread. Rotten Tomatoes doesn't average scores — it's a percentage of positive reviews, and it publishes two separate ones:
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Tomatometer (critics): the percentage of professional critic reviews that are classified as positive, out of all counted reviews. A film at 95% didn't get "95 out of 100" from critics — it means 95% of counted reviews leaned positive, even if a few of those were lukewarm.
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Audience Score: the same positive/negative math applied to verified audience ratings instead of critics.
Those two numbers routinely disagree by 30–40 points on the same film — critically acclaimed, audience-divisive movies are the classic case, and it's not a bug in either number: they're answering different questions ("did critics like it" vs. "did the audience that saw it like it").
Metacritic — critic reviews on a 0–100 weighted scale
Metacritic also aggregates critic reviews, but as a weighted average score (0–100) rather than a positive/negative percentage, with more prominent or historically reliable outlets weighted more heavily. A film can have a healthy Tomatometer and a middling Metascore, because "mostly positive" and "average score" aren't the same measurement.
Why this matters when you're picking something to watch
None of these numbers is "the" rating — they're four different questions asked of four different groups. A useful habit: check the Tomatometer/Metascore for critical consensus on craft, and an audience or IMDb score for whether people who actually watched it enjoyed it. The gap between the two tells you more than either number alone — a high critic score and a low audience score usually means "well-made, but not for everyone"; the reverse usually means a crowd-pleaser critics were lukewarm on.
What CouchReel shows today: CouchReel's catalog is built on TMDB data, and its ratings strip currently shows the TMDB score. IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic scores aren't licensed data sources CouchReel currently has rights to display — so a title page won't show four numbers, just the one CouchReel can stand behind as accurate and current.