Scary Stories: Does a high score on Rotten Tomatoes dictate success?

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark opened at $20.84M which is a record for CBS Films. Did an 80% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes really dictate the film’s success?

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the latest venture from genre super director, Guillermo del Toro had a successful opening weekend raking in $20.84M at the box office according to Deadline. This horror effort has outperformed Dora and the Lost City of Gold which was looking to tap into part of del Toro’s audience.

What is interesting to note is that in the key box office revenue demo (which is adults from 18 to 24 years old), Scary Stories killed coming in at 38% clearly besting Dora’s 15%. Why is that? Maybe because Dora doesn’t elicit enough nostalgic feelings. Plus, Scary Stories is a horror movie that definitely is more intricate in terms of storytelling. It’s aimed for older audiences.

While parents and children can enjoy Dora, there are those that would prefer to take their kids to see del Toro’s adaptation of Alvin Schwartz’s series of books. Although, the industry seems to think that if a genre effort (particularly horror) scores an 80% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, then that is some sort of omen for success.

Sorry, but I don’t buy it. The average audience member is not going to base whether or not they decide to go and see a particular film on an RT score. There have been instances where a horror production will score highly on the meter with critics but not at the box office.

Case in point, The Babadook garnered a Certified Fresh score of 98%. However, it didn’t do particularly well in theaters and by all accounts was the type of film either you liked it or you didn’t (I happened to enjoy it). There was no happy medium. This effort made $10,312, 540M world-wide according to Box Office Mojo.

Some would argue that The Babadook is nothing like Scary Stories which is true but it is in the horror genre. I have a hard time believing that the people that are making it a point to see del Toro’s production really care about what the critics think. Chances are they read the series of books as a kid and fell in love with Stephen Gammell’s nightmarish illustrations.

It is also important to keep advertising in mind which is probably better than RT scores. CBS Films was wise to drop their trailer for Scary Stories during the Super Bowl which is one of the most watched television events of the year.

People were so intrigued that a day after the Bowl aired views for the trailer exploded on social media to the tune of 10M. It’s competition Us which also ran their promo at the same time only received 6.6M hits.

In the end, there will be a certain segment of the population where a high score on Rotten Tomatoes is coveted and will dictate whether or not a movie will be seen. But for the majority of people, they will see a film based on the subject matter and who is in it rather than some arbitrary rating site.

Do you consult Rotten Tomatoes before seeing a film? Let us know what you think in the comments.