The highly anticipated “Barbie” movie, starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, is set to be released in theaters nationwide on July 21, 2023.
Hours after the stars hit the pink carpet at the Los Angeles premiere on Sunday, July 9, a viral Twitter post, which garnered more than 5 million views, claimed the movie debuted with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%. But is that true?
THE QUESTION
Did the “Barbie” movie debut with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%?
THE SOURCES
- Rotten Tomatoes, online aggregator of movie and TV show reviews
- Rotten Tomatoes “Barbie” movie webpage
- Internet Archive Wayback Machine, online archival tool
THE ANSWER
No, the “Barbie” movie did not debut with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%. The Tomatometer score image that appears in the viral post is fake.
WHAT WE FOUND
The “Barbie” movie did not debut with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% like the viral Twitter post claims. The movie, which comes out on July 21, 2023, has not yet been reviewed on the Rotten Tomatoes website. The viral post purporting to show the perfect score is fake.
Rotten Tomatoes is one of the leading online aggregators of movie and TV show reviews from critics and audiences. The website provides fans with a “comprehensive guide to what’s fresh and what’s rotten in theaters and at home” through its Tomatometer score, which is based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics.
The Tomatometer score represents the percentage of positive reviews a movie or TV show receives from professional critics. The score is calculated after the show or movie receives at least five reviews, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
According to the website, when at least 60% of reviews for a movie or TV show are positive, a red tomato is displayed to indicate its “Fresh” status. When less than 60% of reviews for a movie or TV show are positive, a green splat is displayed to indicate its “Rotten” status.
But when there is no Tomatometer score available, a grayed-out tomato appears on the movie or TV show’s webpage. Rotten Tomatoes explains that this could be because the movie hasn’t been released yet or there are not enough ratings to generate a score.
“Rotten Tomatoes has assembled a team of curators whose job it is to read thousands of movie and TV reviews weekly. The team collects movie and TV reviews from Tomatometer-approved critics and publications every day, generating Tomatometer scores,” Rotten Tomatoes says on its website.
As of July 10, 2023, there are no critic reviews for the “Barbie” movie on Rotten Tomatoes, which is why a grayed-out tomato currently appears under the movie’s title on the website. There are also no featured audience reviews for “Barbie” at this time because the movie has not been released yet, Rotten Tomatoes says.
VERIFY reached out to Rotten Tomatoes' parent company Fandango for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
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