Effects of COVID-19 on Critics’ Rating Behavior

Since the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we begin to accept this unusual time of living as the “new normal”. Under unprecedented circumstances and stressors, the effects of COVID-19 may have not only shifted our ways of living but may also have had a noticeable impact on human behavior and emotions online. This study aims to investigate changes in critics’ rating behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Rotten Tomatoes, which is one of the most trusted movie critic websites, we analyzed 44,459 critic reviews to discover the changes in movie critic opinions from before to after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. To capture the changes in reviews of movie critics, we analyzed the effects of COVID-19 on critic movie ratings and sentiments. This research finds that while COVID-19 is perceived to have negatively affected all our lives, critic movie ratings during the COVID-19 pandemic are slightly more positive than before the pandemic. Moreover, in analyzing movie critic reviews, there is no significant impact of COVID-19 on the change in the sentiment of movie critics. This research enlightens online movie platforms of the rating behavioral changes of movie critics before and during the pandemic.