Super Mario Bros movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score shows fans & critics divided

The Super Mario Bros Movie has caused another rift between critics and fans on Rotten Tomatoes, with a sizeable gap forming between the Audience Score and Tomatometer rating.

Rotten Tomatoes is widely misunderstood and misconstrued, and people use it to back up their opinions regardless of any score. A high percentage doesn’t mean it’s perfect, nor does a low score mean it’s terrible – anything slightly above average is counted as a positive review, and vice versa.

Nevertheless, there’s been some fascinating contrasts between the two scores in recent years: Black Adam had a 39% critics score and 89% Audience Score, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s Audience Score was 34% higher than reviewers, and Netflix’s Red Notice was slapped with a 36% Tomatometer score while audiences rated it at 92%.

Is the gulf between critics and everyday moviegoers widening, or is the Audience Score ratcheted up by fandoms retaliating against poor reviews? Whatever the case may be, the Mario movie is the latest example of a large difference between the two camps.

The Super Mario Bros Movie has a divisive Rotten Tomatoes score

The Super Mario Bros Movie currently has a 53% Tomatometer score, with its Audience Score sitting at 96%. This is from more than 140 reviews and more than 1,000 “verified ratings”, so there’s a bit of weight to the split.

In our three-star review, we said: “Fans of the video games and Nintendo generally will love spotting all the cameos and other nods buried throughout – and there’s just enough here to keep older audiences entertained while the kids have a ball.”

This aligns with other positive reviews, with many critics echoing a similar line: there are Easter Eggs galore, children will love it, but there’s not a great amount of substance to it. There’s also been some particularly scathing takedowns, with some describing it as a shameless 92-minute advert for the Mario games (like that’s a bad thing).

Both scores have been the subject of fierce, defensive discussion online. “Rotten Tomatoes can kiss my… I had a great time at Super Mario Bros. The 3D alone was worth more than that horrible rating,” one user wrote.

“The Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score Average and the Audience Score Average for the Super Mario Bros. Movie are VERY different. I don’t think anyone was expecting the Super Mario Bros. Movie to be in Oscar contention,” another tweeted.

“The Mario Movie is amazing. Don’t listen to Rotten Tomatoes they don’t know sh*t LMAO,” a third wrote.

Just to clarify, Rotten Tomatoes isn’t a reviewer, it’s an aggregator.

The Super Mario Bros Movie is in cinemas now. You can check out more of our coverage below:

The Super Mario Bros. Movie review | All actors and characters | Mario’s accent explained | Seth Rogen wants Donkey Kond spinoff | Best Easter Eggs | Chris Pratt’s favorite Mario cheat | Post-credits scene explained | Lots of Mario movies planned | Wario and Waluigi voice speculation | How to watch the Mario movie | Jack Black wants Bowser movie | Will there be a Super Mario Bros. Movie 2?