Relationships among Ratings of Motion Pictures by Viewers and Six Professional Movie Critics

Moderate to high correlations (.43 to .73) were found among the ratings of 568 motion pictures by viewers as indicated in Consumer Reports and by six professional movie critics, (a) Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, (b) Leonard Maltin, (c) Steven H. Scheuer, (d) Roger Ebert, (e) TV Guide, and (f) the Editors of Consumer Guide and Jay A. Brown. All six critics showed good agreement in their evaluations of 41.4% of the films. At least five critics showed good agreement for 66.0% of the movies, and at least four critics showed good agreement for 91.9% of the films. However, the critics showed little or no consensus for the remaining 8.1% of the movies. Viewers agreed most often with those critics who (like themselves) tended to evaluate movies highly.