Rotten Tomatoes’ Brand New Popcornmeter Is Already Hard At Work, And One Surprising Movie Is Celebrating A 99% Win From The Audience

Unsung Hero
(Image credit: Lionsgate)

There are so many movies to watch that have a 90% or more on Rotten Tomatoes based on the critics. However, a brand new Popcornmeter is presenting its own “Fresh” score based on what audiences alone have to say. With Rotten Tomatoes’ new Popcornmeter already hard at work, it reveals one surprising movie is celebrating its win of 99% from audiences.

How Rotten Tomatoes originally worked was a movie receiving a “Fresh” or “Rotten” status based on the percentage of good or bad critical reviews. On August 21st, a Popcornmeter was introduced to create a film’s status based on an audience’s take. If it scores 60% or higher with at least three-and-a-half stars, the movie is “Hot” while those below are “Stale.” A movie wins a “Verified Hot” badge with a score of 90% or higher which means audiences are loving it.

Rotten Tomatoes revealed one surprising movie hit the “Verified Hot” jackpot and it’s the Christian drama Unsung Hero at 99%. Based on the true story of the musical Australian Smallbone family, we see the journey of the formation of the Christian pop duo For King & Country as well as their sister, Rebecca St. James, breaking out in the Christian music industry.

The news of Unsung Hero scoring a “Verified Hot” on Rotten Tomatoes didn’t escape those who worked on the family drama film. Candace Cameron Bure, who portrayed Kay Albright in the music flick, was raving about the good news on her Instagram stories:

This is huge!!!!!! What an incredible accomplishment for all of those involved in @unsungheromovie.

It absolutely is incredible. You may not see too many faith-based movies hitting the awards season circuit, but audiences easily love them for their inspirational themes and strong messages. Critics gave Unsung Hero a “Fresh” rating of 61% with mixed reviews saying the faith-based story was “cringe” to some but moving to others. However, many five-star reviews from audiences on the review-aggregation site loved the faith and inspiration Unsung Hero brought to families.

If Candace Cameron Burke was over the moon about Unsung Hero’s accomplishment, there’s no need to imagine how the movie itself felt about being “Verified Hot.” The movie’s official Instagram account posted how ecstatic and grateful they were for their project:

You made #UnsungHeroMovie the highest rated @RottenTomatoes verified reviewed film of 2024!!!?? 🍅 We sort of can’t believe it.. the love you’ve shown this project just keeps coming. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you 🙏🏽🙏🏽 Shoutout to @screenrant for the article!

It’s amazing that we now have a Popcornmeter to give us an overview of how audiences feel about a movie. After all, 2022 had so many movies that audiences liked that the critics didn’t. Not to mention, Mark Wahlberg’s Arthur the King had the audience give an almost-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% which the critics gave it a 70%. It proves that while critics have their own professional critical analysis of what a movie should be, the personal opinions of an audience shouldn’t be ignored.

The Christian music drama Unsung Hero has a surprising accomplishment of Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter hitting a “Verified Hot” badge of 99%. With a new Popcornmeter churning the butter of audiences’ opinions, more movies like Unsung Hero can get the recognition they deserve. The 2024 movie release is available to rent on various streaming renting platforms.

Carly Levy
Entertainment Writer

Just your average South Floridian cinephile who believes the pen is mightier than the sword.