How much do reviews influence your decision to catch a movie in the theater?

G

Guestx

Guest
Just curious to get everyone's take on this.

For me, they are very influential. For instance, just today I saw that both Live By Night and Passengers are getting pretty poor critical receptions (both are under 40% on RT) and now I'm thinking I'll wait until they hit DVD to check them out.

It just seems like if I'm going to devote the kind of time and money that it takes to get out of the house and go to the theater then the movie needs to be pretty damn solid.

So what about you? How much do reviews influence your theatrical attendance?
 
I rarely watch movies in theatres, so I'm pretty unlikely to go watch one that didn't have great reviews.
 
They use to really influence my decision but recently if I really want to see a film and it gets bad reviews, I'll go anyway to see for myself.

There were a couple films that got bad reviews or when I was done watching the film the reviews should have been way better imo.
 
I only occasionally read them before hitting the theaters. The good ones reinforce my decision to watching it but the bad ones doesn't bother me. Everyone have different taste in.. well everything. Not going to let others decide whether how I spend my evening or weekend.

There are plenty of movie goers here in Mayberry. There is only a tiny portion that rate movies similarly to me. A handful I rarely seen rate films higher than 6, which really makes me curious what their favorite films are. Some of these individuals rate 1 ~ 3 more often than anything above 5. I generally rate films Good, 6 ~ 7, and above.

Some people wishes to find logic in films, even sci-fi ones. Rather than nit-picking every single flaw, I generally just watch movies like they are supposed to be, 90min+ of entertainment. I tend to enjoy myself more with that mindset and find my 10 bucks worth it.
 
I have not paid attention to film critics for years now. I find many critics now have some kind of political agenda behind their reviews.
 
They definitely influence my decision. I still see some movies regardless though but not usually.
 
It depends.

For instance, "Lords of Salem" got horrible reviews, but I went to go see because I'm a fan of Rob Zombie and the movie looked great in the trailer. When I watched it, I really really loved it.

Same with a movie like "Out of the Furnace." It got loads of bad reviews. But at the same time, a lot of respected people in the movie world (like Jeff Bridges and Michael Mann) gave the movie big praise. When I saw it, I loved it.

Those two movies have established writer/directors, so you can sort of gauge it, and realize that not everyone likes those styles.


On the flipside, I was kind of interested in seeing "The Last Witchunter" (with Vin Diesel in it) but decided to based on all the horrible reviews, and the fact that the writers and director weren't exactly stellar.

I saw it the other day on cable and I regretted not seeing it in theaters. It was amazing.


Anyway, for reviews, I check rotten tomatoes....but more importantly, I go through the IMDB user reviews, and skim those. Those, in my opinion, give you a more accurate gauge.


So basically, when it comes to paying money to see a movie in the theater, it's smart to check reviews. But at the same time, you've got to find out for yourself.
 
It rarely will stop me from seeing a movie that I do want to see. Sometimes if reviews are really good for a movie I wasn't really interested in I will go watch it, but often times if really I had no interest I would wait until it gets released on Blu-Ray.
 
I rarely read reviews until after the fact. I don't go to theaters often, but when I do, I'd rather not review narratives in my head while I'm watching.
 
i very rarely go to theaters. a movie better have more than 50% on rotten tomatoes if im even gonna consider it. hell nowadays i rarely even watch a movie under 50% even if its free

and its not even the time or money it takes to get to a theater. its the time it takes to watch the movie.
 
I tend to ignore critic reviews since I disagree with them too often. I'll hop on IMDB and check out reactions from regular people though, but if I really want to see a movie I'm usually not influenced by the negative reviews. It's very rare that a film in theaters peaks my interest nowadays, so if one does I'll usually just go see it regardless of what other people or critics are saying.
 
Used to read reviews a lot and go to the movies a lot more. I haven't been since like The Force Awakens was out I think.
 
BayAreaGuy said:
On the flipside, I was kind of interested in seeing "The Last Witchunter" (with Vin Diesel in it) but decided to based on all the horrible reviews, and the fact that the writers and director weren't exactly stellar.

I saw it the other day on cable and I regretted not seeing it in theaters. It was amazing.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I was interested in that one as well but also decided not to go because of the reviews.

Sounds like I should go ahead and give it a look.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
That was a year ago.
Click to expand...


I know! It's been a long time, this year was pretty chaotic though. I moved into my parent's house, then I moved into my own house, then I moved out and into a friend's house for a couple months and now I'm back at my house.
 
Not at all. I quite often enjoy films that have been given the thumbs down. It all started with Weird Science as a kid.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Just curious to get everyone's take on this.

For me, they are very influential. For instance, just today I saw that both Live By Night and Passengers are getting pretty poor critical receptions (both are under 40% on RT) and now I'm thinking I'll wait until they hit DVD to check them out.

It just seems like if I'm going to devote the kind of time and money that it takes to get out of the house and go to the theater then the movie needs to be pretty damn solid.

So what about you? How much do reviews influence your theatrical attendance?
Click to expand...

I judge a movie entirely by the director and trailer. I feel like I can jusge a film pretty well by its trailer these days.

I also value some of the reviews that people post in the D&RTLMYS threads, like DL saying Rogue One was underwhelming to me at least is telling because I feel like I've got a good feel for his taste, same with the guys in the SMC

Most professional reviewers in my opinion are terrible
 
BEER said:
I rarely read reviews until after the fact. I don't go to theaters often, but when I do, I'd rather not review narratives in my head while I'm watching.
Click to expand...

I never read reviews but I check the scores on Metacritic and RT. Like @BJ@LW&WW said above, if a film has under a 50% then there's a good chance that will be enough to make me wait for DVD. The exceptions are those films where I was really bowled over by the trailer and I just don't give a fuck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,929
Messages
55,455,695
Members
174,786
Latest member
Gladiator47

Share this page

Back
Top