Marvel Studios has had one hell of a run. In 13 years the franchise has released 25 movies, and almost every single one has been a critical and a box office success. Nearly every MCU movie is “Certified Fresh” with Rotten Tomatoes, and even the ones that are not are still seen as “good.” However, Eternals may be on the verge of making history in a dubious way, as it is currently the lowest rated MCU movie on the site, and not just that, it’s currently considered “rotten.”
While new reviews are still incoming, so things are always changing, as of this writing, Eternals sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a 54% positive review score. Since the site uses a system similar to letter grading, anything below 60% is considered “rotten.” A total of 163 reviews have been submitted so far.
To be clear, this number absolutely will change, what’s impossible to know is which direction it will go. While many critics have already seen Eternals, some early screenings are still taking place this week. And not every critic always has access to early screenings, so there will be many more reviews published over the next week.
That being said, while Eternals may be able to recover from its current designation with enough positive reviews, it’s going to be difficult for it to not end up as the lowest scoring MCU movie. Prior to Eternals that dubious distinction belonged to Thor: The Dark World which still ended up with a 66% positive score. The Incredible Hulk scores slightly better at 67%.
The Eternals score on Rotten Tomatoes is an interesting data point, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a great deal. Many movies have terrible Rotten Tomatoes scores yet were able to collect massive box office takes. We’ve also seen many movies get low scores from critics but high scores from fans, so this doesn’t mean that the people sitting in the theater this weekend are going to dislike the film.
And it doesn’t mean that Eternals is all that bad either. With 54% of reviews being positive, and an average score of 5.8 out of 10, the movie is still seen as mostly good by most of the people that have reviewed it. That may not be as many as other movies, but it’s not nothing. 88 positive reviews is still more than many movies actually get.
And even many of the reviews that are perhaps not glowing are still complimentary of Eternals in many ways. The film is certainly something a little different for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For some that may be a negative, for others it’s a big plus, even if the film doesn’t quite stick the landing.
By early next week we’ll know what people really think of Eternals. More critics will sound off, and the audience will give their own reviews on social media and on Rotten Tomatoes, and they also will have voted with their money.
