Update, November 16, 2017, 12:50p.m. EDT: Justice League's Rotten Tomatoes score is here, and it's not great. The movie had a 43% score on the Tomatometer when Rotten Tomatoes first revealed the news. Since then, it's dropped to 40%.
The original post, published on November 14, 2017, continues below.
Is Rotten Tomatoes becoming less relevant when it comes to big-budget movies' ticket sales?
The site, which aggregates reviews from certified film critics, has delayed publishing Justice League's Tomatometer score until the day the movie opens in theaters, Entertainment Weekly reports. (They also note that Warner Bros. Entertainment owns a minority stake in Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes' parent company.)
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Justice League opens on Thursday, and its Rotten Tomatoes score will be revealed at 12:01 a.m. that day. Warner Bros. also asked critics to keep Justice League reviews under embargo until 2:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning. As EW points out, studios typically allow reviews to be published at least a week before a movie's release.
Officially, the Tomatometer score delay is because Rotten Tomatoes will unveil the score through its "See It/Skip It" Facebook show, EW notes. Still, it brings to mind the Sad Affleck meme, which went viral after Batman v Superman stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill were asked about the movie's negative reviews. (The film has a 27% score on Rotten Tomatoes.) Affleck has since joked about the meme, taking it in stride. But it does seem like the movie is getting ahead of any potentially negative reviews by delaying the Tomatometer score release until after people have bought advance tickets to see the film during its opening weekend.
Of course, a negative Tomatometer score doesn't necessarily mean people won't pay to see a movie in theaters. DC Comics fans will probably see Justice League no matter how it fares among critics. Still, this way, the movie's stars won't have to answer Sad Affleck-generating questions about any negative reviews for at least a few more days.
The #JusticeLeague Tomatometer score is being held for a full day after the embargo lifts. That’s raising eyebrows. https://t.co/QxDcPOAIgw
— Alissa Wilkinson (@alissamarie) November 14, 2017
Back in March, director and producer Brett Ratner — whose company RatPac Entertainment has helped finance Batman v Superman, along with other Warner Bros. titles — said Rotten Tomatoes was "the destruction of our business."
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"The Rotten Tomatoes score was so low on Batman v Superman I think it put a cloud over a movie that was incredibly successful," Ratner told EW at the time.
Ratner has since been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, and he's sued one of the women for defamation. RatPac Entertainment's financing of Wonder Woman 2 has also created controversy for the upcoming movie.