Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12, 1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong.
[12] His objective in creating Rotten Tomatoes was "to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of
critics in the
U.S."
[13] As a fan of
Jackie Chan, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chan's
Hong Kong action movies as they were being released in the United States. The catalyst for the creation of the website was
Rush Hour(1998), Chan's first major Hollywood crossover, which was originally planned to release in August 1998. Duong coded the website in two weeks and the site went live the same month, but the release of
Rush Hourwas delayed until September 1998. Besides
Jackie Chan films, he began including other films on Rotten Tomatoes, extending it beyond Chan's
fandom.
[14][15] The first non-Chan
Hollywood movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was
Your Friends & Neighbors (1998). The website was an immediate success, receiving mentions by
Netscape,
Yahoo!, and
USA Today within the first week of its launch; it attracted "600–1000 daily unique visitors" as a result.
[citation needed]
In early 2009,
Current Television launched
The Rotten Tomatoes Show, a televised version of the web review site. It was hosted by
Brett Erlich and
Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek. The show aired Thursdays at 10:30 EST
[22] until September 16, 2010. It returned as a much shorter segment of
InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011.
[citation needed]
By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create and join groups to discuss various aspects of film. One group, "The Golden Oyster Awards", accepted votes of members for various awards, spoofing the better-known
Academy Awards or
Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups.
[23][citation needed]
As of February 2011, new community features have been added and others removed. For example, users can no longer sort films by Fresh Ratings from Rotten Ratings, and vice versa.
[citation needed]
On September 17, 2013, a section devoted to scripted television series, called TV Zone, was created as a subsection of the website.
[24]
In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to
Comcast's
Fandango. Warner Bros retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango.
[4]
In July 2017, the website's
editor-in-chiefsince 2007, Matt Atchity, left to join
The Young Turks YouTube channel.
[26] On November 1, 2017, the site launched a new web series on
Facebook,
See It/Skip It, hosted by Jacqueline Coley and Segun Oduolowu.
[27]
In March 2018, the site announced its new design, icons and logo for the first time in 19 years at
South by Southwest.
