The Rotten Tomatoes mobile app has the features the website has—audience and critic scores and reviews, trailers, interviews, and entertainment news, etc. It’s also launching things that Letterboxd already has, like the option for users to “curate personal watchlists, leave ratings and reviews, and share their favorites, while following other trusted voices on their social feed.” These features slot in just fine with Rotten Tomatoes’ whole deal, but it may be too late to cultivate the film nerd cred with which Letterbox has already cornered the market. Rotten Tomatoes perhaps has the advantage of better brand recognition, so maybe it’ll be able to reach a broader audience than the dedicated cinephile crowd on its rival app. But it’ll be hard to beat the organic buzz that’s resulted in celebrities eager to share their Letterboxd Top Four.
Perhaps in attempt to rival this, Rotten Tomatoes has its own unique offerings, like “Tomojis”: “Rotten Tomatoes’ new take on popular reactive icons.” It also has an artificial intelligence tool called aRTi, “a trusted guide to find movie and TV scores, see where content is streaming or available for purchase, with personalized recommendations based on interest to follow.” (If you launch an app in 2025 and it doesn’t have AI, why even bother?)
“After more than 25 years of helping fans decide what to watch, we’re excited to take that connection even further. This app is all about making it easier—and more fun—for people to discover content they love, track what they want to watch, dive deeper into their favorite movies and shows, and connect with other fans, friends, critics and influencers along the way,” Amanda Norvell, SVP of Direct-to-Consumer Services at Fandango, said in a press release. “Today is just the beginning of the journey. We look forward to introducing new features and functionality for critics, fans, influencers, talent, and studios in the months to come, as we build on this exciting new discovery and recommendations platform for entertainment lovers.”
