Rotten Tomatoes scores have gone up by 13% in the past decade

Critics rank the best movie franchises of all time

Franchises and sequels make up a growing percentage of annual films at the box office and aren't typically associated with critical acclaim. However, many franchises over the decades have achieved high praise from critics. This list compiled from...

Hollywood movies' ratings are controlled by the Motion Picture Association

The board, established by a board of parents, has provided ratings (like G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17) for Hollywood films since 1968. Although the MPA provides specific criteria for rating films, many of the characteristics (such as "snippets of language that go beyond polite conversation") are subjective.

The best horror movies of all time

The genre has been scaring audiences for over a century, in many different forms and through many other methods. While any list is subjective, this Rotten Tomatoes list is based on the films' aggregate critical scores. We're sure it'll inspire some additions to your watch list—along with some spirited conversations.

Visualizing Hollywood's flops and winners in 2023

Is the movie worth watching? See how this year's cinematic releases compare with one another by revenue and popularity with this simple chart. Hollywood movies can be ranked on two axes: their popular rating and total revenues earned. In this data...

Keep track of how many of the '100 best films' you've seen

This list from the AFI, a nonprofit dedicated to the cinematic arts, ranks the 100 best films of the past 100 years. A jury of 1,500 film experts compiled the list and includes movies from nearly every genre. It’s also an interactive checklist, allowing you to keep track of how many of the films you’ve seen.

The most critically acclaimed HBO shows

HBO has released a long list of classic TV shows which have come to define the medium. This Rotten Tomatoes chart ranks HBO’s best series based on their aggregated critics’ scores, with classics like “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” joining newer hits like “Succession” and “Barry.” Check it out here.

Evaluating film studio A24's cult status since achieving mainstream success

In its quick ascent to the upper echelons of cinema, A24 has achieved a rare place in pop culture of both cult status and financial success. One critic asks whether it can sustain such a position in this fascinating, quick piece.

Visualizing shifts in emotional performance in film

Computational scientists were curious: has the intensity of emotional expression in films changed over the decades? Using their sophisticated analytical models, the researchers discovered actors' emotional performance has declined in intensity over time. They believe the close-up shots common in contemporary film-making allows actors to be more subtle in their performance. Check out the main takeaways and charts with this unusual study.

Fans of 'The Room' love it for its (many) faults

The movie has bad acting, nonsensical dialogue, and a plot that doesn't add up. Still, its fans attend midnight screenings, recite its most famous lines, and even act out scenes in the aisles. Studies have found that fans are drawn to "trash cinema" like "The Room" for the same reason they're drawn to avant-garde works: because they flout mainstream standards.

In 2008, one writer demonstrated the fickle nature of wine reviews

Robin Goldstein submitted a fake restaurant to the well-respected Wine Spectator for a competition. He created a website for the fake Milan-based business, complete with a menu of wines the magazine itself had disparaged. That didn't stop Wine Spectator from naming Goldstein's ruse among that year's winners.

Classic movies are prone to decomposition because they're captured on nitrate film

Nitrate film was the standard in early Hollywood and is prone to decomposition over time. It's led to an estimated 75% of early American films being lost to history.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Some critics say comparing chart rankings across decades is meaningless

Although Billboard’s charts are presented as objective measures of a given song’s popularity, the company’s changing methodology (alongside changes in technology and listener habits) has made weighing chart success from different eras an imperfect science.

Who gets thanked the most in Oscar speeches?

This resource analyzes nearly 2,000 Oscar acceptance speeches. It shows the average number of words spoken, the themes discussed, and how these trends have changed over the years. Scroll through the results and see if Harvey Weinstein was thanked more often than God in past years.

The 1948 Supreme Court ruling was overturned in 2020

In 2020, US District Court Judge Analisa Torres overturned the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that broke up the studio system—effectively allowing the film industry to become vertically integrated once again—with companies like Amazon and Disney taking advantage of the relaxed regulations.

How 'based on a true story' is that film? A scene-by-scene review

Films based on history may diverge from reality or try to replicate it exactly, though this is difficult for a viewer to evaluate. This tool takes dozens of popular films based on a "true story" and ranks each scene by its authenticity compared to known historical accounts. See reviews for "Hacksaw Ridge," "The Wolf of Wall Street," and more.

X's brand health has sharply declined since Elon Musk's takeover

Since Musk acquired the platform, impression, quality, and satisfaction scores have all turned negative—reflecting widespread disapproval among former and current users. As of fall 2024, despite the reputational damage, X remains the sixth-most-visited website globally.

The awards are selected by approximately 50 industry insiders

The judges are required to see every production in a season. The Tony Awards Administration Committee, a self-governing board, selects these nominators, who serve on staggered terms of one to three years.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

YouTube evolved into a film distributor

YouTube has evolved from a random clearinghouse of user-uploaded video content to a global media powerhouse. One example is the use of YouTube to distribute "Milk & Serial," a slasher film made for $800 that eventually racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

The history of Reddit, the front page of the internet

The hyperactive online forum and social media platform has transformed since 2006 from a simple link-sharing site to a behemoth in digital media. Topping off its ascendancy, Reddit went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2024, solidifying its future amid a shifting technological climate. Dive into Reddit's nearly two decades of growth with this detailed timeline.

The data on romance's recent rise

Romance novels have historically sold well, but since 2022, the genre has seen rapid growth, propelled by popular writers, like Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry, and a devoted readership active on TikTok. This study from statistician Daniel Parris runs through the numbers, demonstrating how the genre has become an industry powerhouse.

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans were annoyed by tipping as of 2025

That’s a sharp increase from the 75% who thought tipping culture had gone too far in 2024. One potential culprit? The proliferation of tipping screens in places outside sit-down restaurants, such as coffee shops and hair salon. Three in 10 Americans say they give less when presented with tipping screens.

What your credit score actually means

The modern iteration of credit scores hasn’t been around for that long—it was invented just a few decades ago, in 1989. This video outlines how the credit scoring system has evolved and become more complex since then. Plus, it explains what your credit score actually means, what factors impact your score, and more. Watch it here.

The 'Ratatouille' musical started as a joke on TikTok

It all started as a meme: What if “Ratatouille” were adapted for the stage? Just a few months later, though, it was an actual production, featuring genuine Broadway stars.

One writer suggests using the California roll to evaluate sushi restaurants

Christine Carone uses the logic of the Big Mac Index—a metric for evaluating purchasing power by comparing countries’ Big Mac prices proposed by the Economist—for evaluating takeout sushi. Her recommendation is looking at the cost of a California roll, a relatively inexpensive, middle-of-the-road item for any American sushi spot. If it’s too expensive, the restaurant isn’t offering good value. But if it’s too cheap, you should worry about the quality of the fish.

TikTok's top 10 users have over 1B followers

Influencers like Charli D'Amelio and MrBeast, as well as more traditional stars like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, produce content that keep people scrolling.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.