A movie review can make or break a film’s box office, and a new study gave a thumbs down to the small number of female critics.
Only 27% of the “Top Critics” on review site Rotten Tomatoes are women compared to 73% being men, according to a new study by San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film.
The data is a part of a study of the site over a three-month period in the spring of 2016. This includes 5,776 reviews written by 247 “Top Critics” on the site.
The numbers are even more spread out when taking into account reviews of films in a particular genre. For example, the study found that just 16% of reviews of science fiction features were written by women.
Known for its “Tomatometer,” Rotten Tomatoes has become the destination for film reviews. According to the site, “Top Critics” is “a title awarded to the most significant contributors of cinematic and critical discourse.”
The disparity on the site has been noticed by one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Meryl Streep.
Streep criticized the site in October saying about the site’s “Tomatometer: “There are 168 women. And I thought that’s absolutely fantastic, and if there were 168 men it would be balanced. If there were 268 men it would be unfair… actually there are 760 men who weigh in on the Tomatometer.”
“I submit to you that men and women are not the same, they like different things. Sometimes they like the same thing, but sometimes their tastes diverge,” Streep added. “If the Tomatometer is slighted so completely to one set of tastes that drives box office in the United States, absolutely.”
