Rotten Tomatoes Adds 600 Critics to Its Reviewer Class

Rotten Tomatoes has added more than 600 new critics in the past year, after the review-aggregation website for film and television announced last year that it would strive to be more diverse when it comes to its reviewers.

According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, 55 percent of review contributors in the new class are women. An estimated 60 percent of the new review class are freelancers with 10 percent of those publishing reviews on modern platforms, such as Youtube and podcasts.

The report also stated that Rotten Tomatoes now has nearly 5,000 approved critics.

“There’s still lots to do, but we’ve learned a lot,” said Paul Yanover, president of Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company.

The report went on to note that Yanover said the company would commit a grant of $100,000 to support industry initiatives that foster inclusion in criticism, which could include the coverage of travel to film festivals.

Reports also stated that 73 percent of the new class of critics have witnessed an increase in their site traffic and social media followers.

Jenny Jediny, senior manager for critics relations at Rotten Tomatoes, said, “We invite our industry colleagues to join us in our effort to create more opportunities for journalists, especially those from underrepresented groups.”

Earlier this year, Rotten Tomatoes announced it was taking steps to verify that users, and not online trolls, are posting ratings and reviews of a movie they have actually seen.