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About Metascores

How We Calculate Our Scores: The Short Summary

Each movie, game, book and album featured on metacritic.com is assigned a METASCORE®, which is a weighted average of all of the scores assigned by individual critics to that movie, game, book or album. On a typical film page, for example, you will see the individual critic scores next to each of their quotes, while the overall METASCORE will be displayed at the top of the page. Book METASCORES are calculated slightly differently, but the underlying concept is the same.

METASCORES range from 0-100, with higher scores indicating better overall reviews, and lower scores indicating less favorable reviews from critics. Various ranges of METASCORES are also identified by different colors, so you can tell at a glance how critics felt: generally, green scores indicate favorable reviews, yellow scores denote mixed reviews, and red scores are used for unfavorable reviews.

The METASCORE is considered a weighted average because we assign more significance, or weight, to some critics and publications than we do to others, based on the overall stature and quality of those critics and publications. In addition, for music and movies, we also normalize the resulting scores (akin to "grading on a curve" in college), which prevents scores from clumping together.

Note that we do not calculate METASCORES for items that do not have a minimum number of reviews, as doing so would not provide an accurate result. These items are marked score pending or XX.

If you have more questions about Metascores, or would like an in-depth explanation of our scoring system and other inner workings of our site, please read our long explanation/FAQ below.

 

How We Calculate Our Scores: The Long FAQ

You may read through all of the questions or answers below, or jump to a particular topic:

Scoring Calculation Questions
Publication-Related Questions
Movie-Specific Questions
Music-Specific Questions
Game-Specific Questions
Book-Specific Questions
TV-Specific Questions

If you have a question about our site that is not answered below, feel free to contact us.


Scoring Calculation Questions

Q: So, how do you compute METASCORES anyway?

A: To put it simply, a METASCORE is a weighted average of up to 30 reviews from national critics and publications for a given movie, book, TV show, videogame, or album. For those of you who enjoy math, read further.

The basic concept is the same for each of the genres (except books, which has a unique system) currently included in our site. Let's use a fictional movie--'Iron Chef vs. Godzilla'--as an example.

Our staffers will go through every publication on our Film Publications list (see below) looking for reviews for Iron Chef vs. Godzilla. For each review found, we will take the score given by the critic and convert it to a 0-100 point scale. (For those critics who do not provide a score, we'll assign a score from 0-100 based on the general impression given by the review.). These individual critic scores are then averaged together to come up with an overall score.

This overall score, or METASCORE, is a weighted average of the individual critic scores. Why a weighted average? When selecting our source publications, we noticed that some critics consistently write better (more detailed, more insightful, more articulate) reviews than others. In addition, some critics and/or publications typically have more prestige and weight in the industry than others. To reflect these factors, we have assigned weights to each publication (and, in the case of film, to individual critics as well), thus making some publications count more in the METASCORE calculations than others.

In addition, for our film and music sections, all of the weighted averages are normalized before generating the METASCORE. To put it another way that should be familiar to anyone who has taken an exam in high school or college, all of our movies, games, and CDs are graded on a curve. Thus the METASCORE may be higher or lower than the true weighted average of the individual reviews, thanks to this normalization calculation. Normalization causes the scores to be spread out over a wider range, instead of being clumped together. Generally, higher scores are pushed higher, and lower scores are pushed lower. Unlike in high school, this is a good thing, since it provides more of a distinction between scores and allows you to better compare scores across movies (or CDs).

The resulting METASCORE, then, is a good indication of how a particular movie/game/CD was reviewed. The better the reviews, the higher the score will be; the worse the reviews, the lower the score will be. Ideally, if reviews are completely divided between good and bad, the METASCORE should be close to 50.

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Q: Are user votes included in the METASCORE calculations?

A: No. While we solicit votes from our site visitors on movies, games, and music, we do not include those votes in the METASCORE. The METASCORE is a weighted average of the published critic reviews contained in the chart on that page, and thus does not include any votes or comments from our users. However, you may see the average user vote by glancing at the user comments section below the chart of reviews on every page.

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Q: What's with these green, yellow, and red colors?

A: Assuming you are looking at our website and not at your Christmas tree, it's fairly simple: "good" METASCORES are coded in green; "average" METASCORES are yellow, and "bad" METASCORES are red. (This same color coding is also used for the individual critic and user grades.) If the numbers are too complicated to read, you can simply look at the pretty colors to tell what the reviews said.

Here's how the scores break down:

  METASCORE RANGES
General Meaning of Score Movies, Books & Music Games
Universal Acclaim 81-100 90-100
Generally Favorable Reviews 61-80 75-89
Mixed or Average Reviews 40-60 50-74
Generally Unfavorable Reviews 20-39 20-49
Overwhelming Dislike 0-19 0-19

Note that while the descriptive phrases in the chart above are indicative of what a typical METASCORE in that range represents, they are for guidance purposes only and are not as accurate as the scores themselves.

And why do we have five ranges and only three colors? Adding additional colors seems to add unnecessary complexity to the site, and isn't as intuitive as the three-color system. And, any item that has a "green" score will have something to recommend it, with some praise from a fair number of critics (much like an item with a "red" score will have a lot going against it.)

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Q: What the heck does "Score Pending" mean?

Q: Why do I see "xx" listed instead of a METASCORE?

A: To help ensure that METASCORES accurately reflect the reviews given by critics for any particular movie, game, book or album, we no longer display a METASCORE for those items that do not have a minimum number of reviews. Once the minimum number of reviews is reached, the METASCORE will display.

Items that do not have a METASCORE are marked either "Score Pending" or "XX" depending on the space available. These scores (or non-scores) are given a neutral color to further distinguish them, so they appear like this: xx.

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Q: Last week, [MOVIE TITLE] had a METASCORE of 67, but now it says 75. What's up with that? Am I hallucinating?

A: First of all, we're happy that you are visiting our site so frequently. And no, you're not hallucinating (unless you can see that talking donkey in the corner). METASCORES can change, and in fact can do so frequently. The main culprit behind these changing scores is new reviews.

In a perfect world, all of our publications would have a review for the movie, game, book or CD prior to its release. However, in our world, this is not the case, and reviews trickle in over a period of time. Thus as we continue to add reviews over time for a particular item, the item's METASCORE can fluctuate (sometimes up to several times within a day, as can be the case with new movies). Since the METASCORE is basically an average, it will fluctuate more when a new review is added if there aren't a lot of reviews to begin with, and won't change too much if there already are a lot of reviews.

For major-release movies, scores typically will not change much over time, as most reviews will be published on or before the day of release. (We will usually get all of those reviews posted by late morning of that day.) For a limited release film, reviews trickle in over time as the film is added to new geographic markets. For games, books and CDs, reviews are even less standard and will show up anywhere from one month before to three months after the release date (or with books and CDs, sometimes even a year after the original release date, if the U.S. and U.K. releases are spaced far apart).

Note that the number of reviews is listed at the top of every page, so you can tell at a glance when more reviews have been added.

(Shameless Plug:) So to make sure you have the most current METASCORES, be sure to check metacritic.com often!

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Q: Entertainment Weekly gave [MOVIE NAME] a B+; why do you guys list their grade as an 83?

A: When you tell a computer to compute the average of B+, 45, 5, and *****, it just looks at you funny and gives an error message. When you tell a computer to compute the average of 83, 45, 50, and 10, it is much, much happier. Thus, in order to make our computers happy (and calculate the METASCORES), we must convert all critics' scores to a 0-100 scale. So for the letter grade scale used by Entertainment Weekly, an A represents 100, and F corresponds to zero, with the other letters falling somewhere in between. Similarly, 4- and 5-star scales and other odd grading scales are all converted to the 0-100 scales you see displayed on each of our film, video, game, and music pages.

Of course, we could have performed this conversion behind the scenes, and displayed the orignal grades on our film, video, game, and music pages; however, we also wanted to provide you with an easy way to compare the individual critic scores against one another. It is much easier to tell the difference between an 80, a 60, and a 20 than it is to tell the difference between a B+, a $5.25, and a *. We believe that this benefit outweighs any loss in precision caused by the conversion.

And remember, if you really want to know the original grade, just click on the quote from that critic and you'll be taken to the full review.

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Q: Well then, can I see all of your grade conversion scales?

A: Well, since you asked, sure. Some of the conversions are obvious (for example, if a critic uses a 0-10 scale, his/her grade is simply multiplied by ten). Some of the less obvious conversions are displayed below:

4-Star Scale
Their Grade Converts To
4 100
3.5 88
3 75
2.5 63
2 50
1.5 38
1 25
0.5 12
0 0
Letter Grades
Their Grade Converts To
A or A+ 100
A- 91
B+ 83
B 75
B- 67
C+ 58
C 50
C- 42
D+ 33
D 25
D- 16
F+ 8
F or F- 0

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Q: I read Manohla Dargis' review of [MOVIE NAME] and I swear it sounded like a 9... why did you guys say she gave it an 8?

A: Many reviewers include some sort of grade for the movie, album, or game they are reviewing, whether it is on a 5-star scale, a 100-point scale, a letter grade, or other mark. However, plenty of other reviewers choose not to do this. Hey, that's great... they want you to actually read their review rather than just glance at a number. (Personally, we at Metacritic like to read reviews, which is one of the reasons we include a link to every full review on our site.... we want you to read them too!)

However, this does pose a problem for our METASCORE computations, which are based on numbers, not qualitative concepts like art and emotions. (If only all of life were like that!) Thus, our staff must assign a numeric score, from 0-100, to each review that is not already scored by the critic. Naturally, there is some discretion involved here, and there will be times when you disagree with the score we assigned. However, our staffers have read a lot of reviews--and we mean a lot--and thus through experience are able to maintain consistency both from film to film and from reviewer to reviewer. When you read over 200 reviews from Manohla Dargis, you begin to develop a decent idea about when she's indicating a 90 and when she's indicating an 80.

Note, however, that our staff will not attempt to assign super-exact scores like 87 or 43, as doing so would be impossible. Typically, we will work in increments of 10 (so a good review will get a 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100), although in some instances we may also fall halfway in-between (such as a 75).

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Q: Hey, I AM Manohla Dargis, and you said I gave the movie an 80, when really I gave it a 90. What gives?

A: Now, if you are indeed the critic who wrote the review, and disagree with one of our scores, please let us know and we'll change it.

This does happen from time to time, and many of the critics included on this site (such as Ms. Dargis) do indeed check their reviews (as well as those of their colleagues) on metacritic.com.

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Q: Can you tell me how each of the different critics are weighted in your formula?

A: Absolutely not.

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Q: Why should I trust your scores? Isn't it all a scam to make money?

A: First of all, if you've been reading the papers lately you'd realize that NOBODY is making money on the Internet. (Although, frankly, we'd like to... and if you'd like to help, contact us about advertising on our site or licensing our content.) We do make a small amount of money if you click on one of the links to buy games or soundtracks or books or DVDs on our site and then actually make a purchase. But we are talking very small. We are not affiliated with any studio, record company, or game company; nor do we directly sell any of the products reviewed on our site. Our goal is to provide completely impartial information about all of the movies, albums, and games you find on our site, so that you may make an informed decision when deciding what to watch, hear, or play. The way we see it, if we weren't completely impartial, you wouldn't come back to the site. So we have made objectivity our top priority.

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Publication-Related Questions

Q: Which critics and publications are included in your calculations?

A: See the lists below. Several times each year, we will reevaluate our publication lists and may make additions and/or deletions.

Film Games

Austin Chronicle
Baltimore Sun
Boston Globe
Charlotte Observer
Chicago Reader
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Dallas Observer
Empire
Entertainment Weekly
Film Threat
The Hollywood Reporter
LA Weekly
Los Angeles Times
Miami Herald
The New Republic
New York Daily News
New York Magazine
New York Post
New York Times
The New Yorker
Newsweek
NPR
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Portland Oregonian
Premiere
ReelViews
Rolling Stone
Salon.com
San Francisco Chronicle
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Slate
Time
Toronto Globe and Mail
TV Guide
USA Today
Variety
Village Voice
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

 

1Up
2404.org
360 Gamer Magazine UK*
Ace Gamez
ActionTrip
Adventure Gamers
Armchair Empire
Atomic Gamer
Boomtown
Cheat Code Central
Computer Games Online RO
Computer & Video Games
Console Gameworld
Console Monster
Cubed3
Daily Game
Darkstation
Dark Zero
Deeko
Destructoid
Digital Entertainment News
Edge Magazine*
Electronic Gaming Monthly*
Extreme Gamer
EuroGamer
Firing Squad
G4 TV
Game Almighty
Game Chronicles
GameDaily
Game Informer*
Game Over Online
Game Revolution
GameCritics
Gameplanet
Gameplayer
Game Positive
GamePro
Gamer 2.0
Gamer.nl
GamerNode
Gamer's Hell
Gamers Europe
Gamers' Temple
Gamervision
Games Master UK*
GameShark
GameSpot
GameSpy
GameStar
GamesRadar
GamesTM*
GameTrailers
GameZone
Gaming Age
Gaming Excellence
Gaming Nexus
Gaming Target
Gaming Trend
Giant Bomb
Got-Next
IC-Games
IGN
Jolt Online Gaming UK
Just Adventure
Just RPG
Kombo
Level7.nu
Maxi Consolas (Portugal)*
MEGamers
Modojo
MS Xbox World
My Gamer
netjak
NGamer Magazine UK*
Nintendo Power*
Nintendojo
NintendoWorldReport
n-Revolution Magazine UK*
NTSC-uk
NZGamer
Official Nintendo Magazine UK*
Official Playstation 2 Magazine UK*
Official Xbox 360 Magazine UK*
Official Xbox Magazine*
The Onion (A.V. Club)
PALGN
PC Format
PC Gamer*
PC Gamer UK*
PC Gameworld
PC Zone UK*
Pelit*
PGNx Media
Planet Xbox 360
Play Magazine*
Playstation: Official Magazine US* Playstation: Official Magazine UK* Play (Poland)*
Play UK*
Pocket Gamer UK
PSM3 Magazine UK*
PSX Extreme
PSW Magazine UK*
PTGamers
Quandary
RPG Fan
Strategy Informer
Talk Xbox
Team Xbox
Thunderbolt
Totally360
Total Videogames
TotalPlaystation
VideoGamer
Video Game Talk
The Wiire
Wired
Worth Playing
X360 Magazine UK*
Xbox360Achievements
XboxAddict Xbox World 360 Magazine UK*
Xbox World Australia
Yahoo! Games
YouGamers
ZTGameDomain

Zentendo
Music

All Music Guide
Almost Cool
Alternative Press*
Amazon.com
Austin Chronicle
Billboard
Blender*
Boston Globe
Cokemachineglow.com
Delusions of Adequacy
Dot Music
Drowned In Sound
Dusted Magazine
Entertainment Weekly
Filter*
The Guardian
Hartford Courant
Hot Press
Los Angeles Times
Lost At Sea
Magnet*
Mojo*
MSN Consumer Guide
musicOMH.com
New Musical Express
New York Magazine
The New York Times
No Ripcord
NOW Magazine (Toronto)
Observer Music Monthly
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Paste Magazine
The Phoenix (Boston)
Pitchfork
Pop Matters
Prefix Magazine
Q Magazine*
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin*
Sputnikmusic
Tiny Mix Tapes
Trouser Press
Uncut*
Under The Radar*
Urb*
Vibe*
Village Voice
The Wire*

 

 

 

Television

Amazon.com
The Arizona Republic
Baltimore Sun
Boston Globe
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Detroit Free Press
Entertainment Weekly
Flak
Hollywood Reporter
IGN
Kansas City Star
LA Weekly
Los AngelesTimes
Miami Herald
The New Republic
New York Daily News
New York Magazine
New York Post
The New York Times
The New Yorker
The Star-Ledger (Newark)
Newsday
The Onion AV Club
Orlando Sentinel
Paste Magazine
People Weekly*
Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pop Matters
Salon
SF Chronicle
San Jose Mercury News
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Slant Magazine
Slate
Time
TV Guide
TVShowsOnDVD.com
Under The Radar*
USA Today
Variety
Village Voice
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

Books

Atlantic Monthly
Booklist
Bookslut
Boston Globe
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Daily Telegraph
The Economist
Entertainment Weekly
Flak
The Globe And Mail
The Guardian
Houston Chronicle
The Independent
Kirkus Rev Of Books
LA Weekly
Library Journal
London Review Of Books
Los Angeles Times
The Nation
The New Republic
New York Observer
New York Review Of Books
The New York Times
The New York Times Book Review
The New Yorker
The Observer
The Onion AV Club
Popmatters

Publisher's Weekly
Review Of Contemporary Fiction
Salon
San Francisco Chronicle
Slate
The Spectator
Sydney Morning Herald
The Times Literary Supplement
USA Today
Village Voice
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

* denotes print-only publication (with limited or no web-accessible reviews)

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Q: Why is [CRUMMY PUBLICATION NAME] included when [SUPER-GREAT PUBLICATION] isn't?

Q: Why don't you have 97 reviews for every movie like those other websites do?

A: This is basically two different questions (oh wait--it IS two different questions): How do you determine which critics/publications to include in you calculations, and how do you determine the number of critics/publications to include. Let's start with the latter question.

Several other websites that provide links to movie reviews have weighed the quantity vs. quality issue and come out in favor of quantity. These sites typically include links to as many reviews as there are available on the net. And lately, with every Joe Schmo posting a movie review both before and after movie releases, there are quite a few reviews for each movie (we're talking 100's of reviews for the more popular titles). True, some of these Joe Schmos--or at least the Harry Knowles--do have quality sites with useful reviews and information. But the quality of many is inconsistent at best. In addition, there is such a thing as too much information, and statistically, once we include a certain number of reviews in our calculations, adding additional reviews will not change the overall METASCORE much in one direction or another. Thus we felt that selecting a smaller number of higher-quality publications would make the pages of the site easier to read and would maximize the quality of our information.

Ideally, for a good score calculation, and for the sake of providing enough information (but not so much that it is overwhelming to the end user), we would like to have approximately 20 or so reviews per film, game, or album. Because not every publication will have a review for any given item, we tend to have 35-40 or so publications in our panel for each genre. Occasionally, for a major release, we can wind up with over 30 reviews for a particular item, but usually the total will be lower. Sometimes, especially for some limited release films, the total reviews can be much lower, but having a group of 35-40 or so publications to choose from will allow us to get a minimum of 3 reviews for virtually every film, album, book and game.

Choosing which publications and critics to include among the 35-40 in each genre is a trickier proposition, and involved a lot of careful research and study. For games and music, we attempted to identify publications that (1) were well-regarded in the industry and were known for quality reviews; (2) actually seemed to produce quality reviews (or, if not, were so influential in the industry that they had to be included); and (3) had a good quantity of reviews. We also tended to prefer publications which provided reviews online, so that our users would be able to read the complete reviews on the Internet. (This was more difficult for the music genre, as many of the better music publications still do not have online reviews.) Although we typically limited our search to domestic publications, we do include a good number of UK publications in our music calculations, since many of the artists reviewed are from Britain.

We took these same characteristics into effect when selecting the publications to include in our film calculations. For film, however, we also made a point of selecting publications from every region of the country, to ensure that local tastes would be taken into account. True, a very small number of film publications included in our site probably would not have made the cut if it weren't for their geographic location; however, most of the publications included are of a high quality, and those that aren't are weighted accordingly in the formula.

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Q: Why don't you include my publication in your panel?

A: We are always on the lookout for new sources of quality, well-written reviews that are well regarded in the industry or among their peers. Several times throughout the year, we will re-evaulate our current group of publications and make additions and deletions to our panel if necessary. If you feel that your publication deserves inclusion among this elite group, please let us know. Remember, we are only looking for high-quality websites (or print publications).

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Q: How come I can click on some reviews to read the full review, and I can't on others?

A: Whenever possible, when a quote from a review appears on our site, we provide a link to read the full review. There are several reasons we may not have a link to a particular review:

  • The review comes from a print publication that does not make its reviews available online.
  • The review comes from a web site (or print publication) that does not make its archives available online.
  • The review comes from a web site that is no longer operational.

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Q: How come when I click on a review, it says I have to login or subscribe to read the review?

A: Metacritic itself does not include reviews in their entirety, but instead links to the full text of reviews at their originating websites. In some cases (such as the Wall Street Journal and Variety, among others), these websites may require registration and/or charge a subscription fee in order to access their contents. We provide the link to these reviews as a service to those of our users who are subscribers of those sites (or who may have interest in subscribing).

Note that Metacritic itself never charges a fee or requires registration for use of any content at metacritic.com; nor do we receive any money for linking to these subscription-based sites.

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Movie-Specific Questions

Q: How do you determine what movies and videos to include on the site?

A: For film, we include virtually every new release each week, including limited releases and many re-releases of older films, as long as they are reviewed in at least a few of our publications. We will also have these films when they are released on video. However, we do not currently cover straight-to-video titles (and if you are in the market for these, you probably aren't going to need to know their METASCORES).

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Q: Why does your all-time high scores list not include [MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOVIE THAT WAS ON THE AFI 100 GREATEST FILMS LIST AND WAS TAUGHT IN MY CINEMA CLASS AND IS ALWAYS BEING SHOWN AT THE REVIVAL HOUSE DOWN THE STREET]?

A: Don't worry; I'm sure your favorite movie would have a very high METASCORE if it were included in our database. Currently, our database contains virtually all films released since the beginning of 1999. Why? Because that's when we started working on Metacritic. As time and resources permit, we supplement our database with historical releases, and we now have a good selection of "older" films from throughout the 1990s and even some from the 1980s. Remember, however, that we are also limited by the fact that the further back in time we go, the less likely it will be that reviews will be available on the Internet. Thus, the all-time high (and low) scores lists will likely always skew toward more recent releases, and will be lacking some of the all-time classics of cinema. Unless, of course, you consider "Battlefield Earth" a classic.

If you have a request for a specific title you'd like to see added to our database, feel free to contact our film editor.

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Q: How often are the film and video sites updated?

A: New reviews are added on a daily basis as they are published. New movies in theatrical release typically appear on our site the day of their original release, although with larger films we sometimes begin posting reviews a few days prior to release. The week's new home video releases are typically posted on Tuesdays (the day they are released).

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Q: My [FAVORITE PUBLICATION] re-reviews movies when they come out on video or DVD. For your video pages, do you use the original review or the video review?

A: We use the original review of the theatrical release. The fact that many publications re-review movies when they are released on video puzzles us. Why did a movie that scored a 50 when it was released in the theatres suddenly merit an 80 when it is out on video? Could the fact that it did so well at the box office have anything to do with it? OK, so we're not going to start suggesting anything here, except for the fact that these re-reviewed movies tend to receive different scores each time for no logical reason. Because the theatrical release reviews tend to be much more in-depth (and perhaps less influenced by other reviews and by box office stats) than the video-release reviews, we stick with the original reviews in calculating our scores.

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Music-Specific Questions

Q: How do you determine what albums to include on the site?

A: We try to include as many new releases as possible, in a variety of genres. Generally, major pop, rock, rap and alternative releases will be included. We also try to include many indie and electronic artists, as well as major releases in other categories (country, etc.). Occasionally, we will also include import-only items (generally, UK releases) if it appears that they will not be released in the United States in the foreseeable future (otherwise, we will typically wait for the U.S. release). Remember, if an album does not show up in at least 3 of the publications we use, it probably will not be included on the site.

The sheer number of music releases each year (over 30,000 unique titles per year in the U.S. alone--and that's not counting reissues, compilations, etc.), compared to films and video games, makes it virtually impossible to cover every release; thus, our music section is much more selective than our games and movie sections. However, if there is an album we missed that you'd like to see included on the site, feel free to contact our music editor.

As far as historical coverage goes, our database currently goes back to the beginning of 2000, with a handful of releases from 1999. Over time, we will add additional older releases, starting with 1999 and working backwards.

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Q: How often is your music site updated?

A: New reviews are added to existing albums on a daily basis. New albums are added to the site in large batches, usually several times a week (less frequently during slow periods such as December). When albums are added for the first time, they will appear on the music homepage.

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Q: How do I get my album included on the site?

A: Whether you are an artist, label, promoter, or just a fan, feel free to contact our music editor if you want a particular album listed on Metacritic. You may also send review copies of CDs and/or press packets to us at:

Metacritic.com
Attn: Music Editor
1223 Wilshire Boulevard #1240
Santa Monica, California 90403-5400
USA

Of course, we cannot add every album that is suggested, but we will certainly take a look at all submissions. In addition, for those of you submitting CDs for review, please keep in mind that we cannot add anything to the site until reviews have been published by at least a few of the publications we use in our panel.

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Q: What do you do with publications that don't give half-star ratings?

A: A problem unique to the music section of this site is that many of the publications we use as sources for our reviews assign scores to albums on a 0-5 star scale, and many of them use only whole stars (5, 4, 3, etc.) and do not allow for half-star ratings (4 1/2, 3 1/2, etc.). Thus, the scores for these publications get converted to 100 (5 stars), 80 (4 stars), 60, etc.... which means that there is quite a gap between a 3-star album and a 4-star album. And since very few albums get 5 stars, most wind up with either 3 or 4, making it even harder to distinguish between these albums. Often, a 3-star review will read very favorably, suggesting that it would get a 3.5 if more exact ratings were given.

In the past, we have not compensated for this problem, choosing instead to display the exact rating given by the publication. Beginning in January 2003, we altered our policy, and ratings can now be adjusted the equivalent of 1/2 a star in either direction by our music editor based on the general impression given by the text of the review. In most cases, the ratings will remain the same, but in the case of a 3-star review that is extremely favorable, for example, the rating will be bumped from 3-stars to 3.5-stars (or from 60 to 70 as displayed on our site). We feel that this will more accurately reflect the reviewers' feelings about the albums, and thus make our METASCORES more accurate as well.

Note that ratings will only be adjusted for publications that use this 5-star scale without any half-star ratings. Publications that do give half-stars, and publications that use other scales, will not be affected. Some examples of publications that are affected are Mojo, Blender and Q.

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Q: Where's this "Metacritic Music Newsletter" that I signed up for?

A: We have no idea what you are talking about.

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Game-Specific Questions

Q: How do you determine what games to include on the site?

A: We try to cover virtually every new game released in the United States (as well as a few released in the UK only), as long as it is reviewed by multiple publications. This is more true for the console games than for PC games, where the large volume of PC games released this year means that there will always be some that escape publicity (and inclusion on our site).

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Q: Why is the breakdown of green, yellow, and red scores different for games?

A: Let's look at that breakdown again:

  METASCORE RANGES
General Meaning of Score Movies, Books & Music Games
Universal Acclaim 81-100 90-100
Generally Favorable Reviews 61-80 75-89
Mixed or Average Reviews 40-60 50-74
Generally Unfavorable Reviews 20-39 20-49
Overwhelming Dislike 0-19 0-19

The reason for this special treatment for games has to do with the games publications themselves. Virtually all of the publications we use as sources for game reviews (a) assign scores on a 0-100 scale (or equivalent) to their reviews, and (b) are very explicit about what those scores mean. And these publications are almost unanimous in indicating that scores below 50 indicate a negative review, while it usually takes a score in the upper 70s or higher to indicate that the game is unequivocally good. This is markedly different from film or music, where a score of, say, 3 stars out of 5 (which translates to a 60 out of 100 on our site) can still indicate that a movie is worth seeing or a CD is worth buying. Thus, we had to adjust our color-coding for games to account for the different meaning of games scores compared to scores for music and film.

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Book-Specific Questions

Q: Why don't you include individual scores for each critic review in the books section?

A: For movies, games, and music, you may have noticed that we assign a score from 0-100 for each individual critic review. Many of these scores are converted from the scoring system used by each publication, and for those publications that do not assign a score themselves, our editors will a score based on the overall impression given by the review.

Book reviews are a little trickier than movie, music, and game reviews. With the exception of a tiny handful of publications, none of the publications assign a score to their reviews. This factor, coupled with the nature of book reviews themselves (which tend to be less straightforward than, say, videogame reviews) makes us very reluctant to use an exact quantification system for book reviews. While we are comfortable determinining if a book review is positive or negative (or mixed), we do not presume to know if a critic is suggesting that the book merits an 80/100 rather than a 70/100. That leads us to...

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Q: So what are those funny symbols next to each review instead of scores?

A: Glad you asked! You must mean these:

These are the five possible grades assigned to each book review. If a review is positive, it will get the "Favorable" designation unless it is markedly, extremely, overwhelmingly positive (in which case it gets bumped up to "Outstanding")

Similarly, negative reviews get an "Unfavorable" designation absent any extreme language marking a truly "Terrible" review. And if a review is neither positive nor negative, or is equally positive and negative, it merits a "Mixed."

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Q: If you don't assign scores to each review, how do you calculate the METASCORE for each book?

Each symbol is assigned a point value:

4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point 0 points

Special Cases: Note that for Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, all starred reviews automatically receive a score of 4, and any positive reviews that are unstarred are limited to a score of 3. And for Entertainment Weekly, all "A" grades are converted to a 4, "B" grades to a 3, "C" grades to a 2, and so on.

If we add up all of the points for all of the reviews for a given book, and divide that total by the maximum possible points (which would equal 4 times the number of reviews), and multiply the resulting percentage by 100, we have a METASCORE.

Note that individual critics and publications are NOT weighted for books as they are for the other genres; thus, each review counts equally in this equation. (We felt that in did not make sense to weight some reviews higher than others since very few publications use a consistent group of book critics--thus making it difficult to assess one publication's reviews vs. another's.)

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Q: How do you determine which books to include on the site?

For starters, since we only began tracking book reviews in the summer of 2004, our database does not currently hold any books released prior to that time. (That will likely change in the future.)

At the moment, the most significant factor determining whether or not we cover a book is the number of reviews it receives from the 40 or so publications that we track. The more reviews, the likelier that book will be on our site. We attempt to cover an equal number of fiction and nonfiction titles, from a variety of genres. However, many genres (such as children's books, poetry, etc.) are not currently represented in our database, but may be in the future.

We currently strive for an average of one new book a day (although they will likely be added two or three at a time, rather than literally one each day), with the goal of increasing our coverage throughout 2005 to cover a greater number of titles.

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TV-Specific Questions

Q: How do you determine which shows to include on the site?

We attempt to include every series that airs on one of the six broadcast networks, as well as select cable series. In addition, we will include those TV movies, miniseries, live events and specials that are reviewed by a decent number of our sources. Similarly, if a TV DVD set is reviewed by numerous sources, we'll likely cover it as well.

Note that our television section launched in the fall of 2005, so we do not have any programs in our database from prior to that date.

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Q: How come you have multiple pages for the same series?

For almost all of the televison series covered by Metacritic, there will be one page, which lists all reviews published at the time the show first aired. (Typically, the critics will base these reviews on the pilot episode only, or perhaps the pilot plus one or two additional episodes, if these were made available to critics in advance.)

Some acclaimed series (e.g., many of the HBO series) will be re-reviewed by critics at the start of each season, with these additional reviews based on all or several episodes from the upcoming season. For such shows, we create a separate page on the site for each subsequent season that gets reviewed (e.g., Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 5).

In addition, if the series later comes out on DVD, and that DVD release is covered by Metacritic, it also will merit a separate page (since these reviews will be based on the entire season or seasons contained on the DVD, as well as any extras on the DVD).

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