The Best Movies Ever! Comparison Between the IMDB and RT Lists

I am deep into movies since one of my majors was in filmmaking, from writing scripts to shooting and directing short films! This is why I thought it would be exciting to compare two of the most popular movie (and show) review sites, IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and Rotten Tomatoes. 

Before we proceed to the Best Movies comparison between IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, for those of you who possibly live under a rock and have never heard of them, read the following paragraphs to learn what you need to know about these two databases/sites.

IMDb (Internet Movie Database) & Rotten Tomatoes

• IMDb is an audience-driven database of movies, TV shows, and entertainment information.
• Rotten Tomatoes is a critic-focused review aggregator that summarizes professional and audience opinions into scores.

🎬 IMDb

• Founded in 1990 by Col Needham, owned by Amazon since 1998
• Focus: Comprehensive database of films, TV, video games, podcasts, and streaming content.
• Content: Cast and crew credits, plot summaries, trivia, box office data, user ratings, and reviews.
• Scale: Over 25.9 million titles and 14.8 million person records as of 2025.
• Strength: Reflects audience popularity — rankings like the IMDb Top 250 are based on millions of user votes.

🍅 Rotten Tomatoes

• Founded in 1998 by Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang
• Focus: Review aggregation for films and TV shows.
  Content: Collects reviews from professional critics and audiences, producing two key scores:
• Tomatometer: % of positive critic reviews (Fresh vs. Rotten).
• Audience Score (Popcornmeter): Ratings from everyday viewers.
• Strength: Reflects critical consensus — lists like the “Top 300 Best Movies” emphasize films with strong critic approval.

Key Differences

• IMDb = Popularity & audience votes.
• Rotten Tomatoes = Critical consensus & aggregated reviews.

To keep this short, IMDB shows what the audiences love, while Rotten Tomatoes shows what critics endorse.

So the following applies:

• IMDB -> Audiences
• Rotten Tomatoes -> Critics

Differences between the Top Movie Lists from IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes

Here is a Venn diagram comparing IMDb Top 250 and Rotten Tomatoes Top 300, highlighting overlaps and inconsistencies.

What the diagram shows

• IMDb-only films (left circle): Audience favorites missing from Rotten Tomatoes, e.g., The Shawshank Redemption (#1 IMDb but absent on RT).
• RT-only films (right circle): Critic darlings missing from IMDb, e.g. Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, All About Eve.
• Overlap (center): Universally acclaimed films like The Godfather, Seven Samurai, Parasite, The Dark Knight, Spirited Away.

Key Inconsistencies

• Audience vs. Critics: IMDb favors popularity and vote counts, while RT emphasizes critical consensus.
• Duplication errors on RT: The Departed appears twice, and weaker entries like Boxcar Bertha (55%) are oddly included.
• Animation bias: RT includes niche anime (Paranoia Agent, Devilman Crybaby), IMDb sticks to mainstream hits.
• Recent films: Both lists adapt quickly, but RT sometimes adds very new titles (Sinners 2025, The Wild Robot 2024) with limited audience data.

This visualization makes clear that IMDb reflects audience passion, while Rotten Tomatoes reflects critic consensus — and the inconsistencies highlight how differently “greatness” can be defined.

The Full Top Movie List Sorted by IMDb Rank