Critical Acclaim Of Top Movies On Rotten Tomatoes (1998-2017)

Dots indicate the ratings of the 10th-, 50th- and 100th-best-rated films each year on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates movie reviews. Lines indicate the general ratings trend.

Source: Analysis of Rotten Tomatoes data by Joel Waldfogel in Digital Renaissance: What Data and Economics Tell Us About the Future of Popular Culture

Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR