If there was one film releasing this season that’s ‘critic-proof’, it’s Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” – and that’s showing to be the case.
On critics aggregate sites, the film is pulling in a very mixed reaction of just 54% (5.5/10) on Rotten Tomatoes and a dismal 47/100 on Metacritic. Amongst audiences, it’s a whole other story, with the film snagging 95% (4.7/5) and 8.6/10 audience ratings on said respective sites. The film stands at a still very positive but slightly less gushing 7.4/10 on user IMDb ratings.
This one is already stirring up plenty of “critics are out of touch” conversation and talk of how often there is a divide between critics and audiences on popular works. Yet going by the numbers, that’s not necessarily the case.
Where there definitely seems to be a divide is with game-to-film adaptations according to Forbes who’ve broken down some scores. In terms of recent films based on video games, critics have been much more mixed on the films than audiences with only the odd exception. Going by the Rotten Tomatoes score alone, here are some examples:
“Werewolves Within” – 86% critics, 80% audience
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” – 69% critics, 96% audience
“Pokemon: Detective Pikachu” – 68% critics, 79% audience.
“Sonic the Hedgehog” – 64% critics, 93% audience
“Mortal Kombat” – 54% critics, 86% audience
“Tomb Raider” – 53% critics, 55% audience.
“Rampage” – 51% critics, 72% audience.
“Monster Hunter” – 44% critics, 70% audience
“Uncharted” – 41% critics, 90% audience
“Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” – 30% critics, 65% audience
“Warcraft” – 29% critics, 76% audience
“Assassin’s Creed” – 19% critics, 42% audience
Everyone seemed to really like “Werewolves Within” and were very mixed on the “Tomb Raider” reboot. Beyond that, audiences were more positive about game-to-film adaptations – sometimes drastically more.
More enlightening though is how much that divide is almost reversed (albeit to a lesser degree) in terms of game-to-TV series adaptations. In those cases, critics are a bit more upbeat about adaptations than audiences, but in the few cases thus far they are much more in line:
“Arcane” – 100% critics, 96% audience
“Cyberpunk Edgerunners” – 100% critics, 96% audience
“The Last of Us” – 96% critics, 89% audience
“Castlevania” – 94% critics, 90% audience
“The Witcher” – 81% critics, 74% audience
“Halo” – 70% critics, 52% audience
“Resident Evil” – 54% critics, 26% audience
The outlet suggests one potential for this comes down to age as movie critics generally skew older – even with sites like Rotten Tomatoes have made strides to incorporate more diverse and varied critical voices in recent years. Yet that feels like an oversimplification.
Whatever the case, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is on track to beat expectations with a $126 million five-day domestic opening weekend, and exhibitors await the reveal of the film’s CinemaScore, which is garnered from audience exit polls. Update: The CinemaScore has been announced and it’s an ‘A’.
