Why is Metacritic always lower than Rotten Tomatoes?
Metacritic takes reviews from critics, gives them a 0-100 score, and then averages those scores. Metacritic has a higher threshold for the renown of the critic whose reviews are considered for the site, so while the Rotten Tomatoes’ score for Aquaman includes the reviews of 312 critics, Metacritic only uses 49. It’s clearer that the IMDb’s distribution is extremely skewed toward the higher part of the average ratings, while the Metacritic’s METASCORE ratings have nearly balanced distribution. I recommend checking the Metacritic’s METASCORE whenever you are looking for an accurate movie rating.