A Hollywood director has blasted movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes as "the destruction of our business".
Brett Ratner, who directed the Rush Hour films and co-financed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, said reducing hundreds of reviews to one aggregate score was an inaccurate representation that clouded successful films, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Speaking at the Sun Valley Film Festival, Ratner said Rotten Tomatoes was the "worst thing that we have in today's movie culture".
"I think it's the destruction of our business. I have such respect and admiration for film criticism. When I was growing up film criticism was a real art. And there was intellect that went into that.
"Now it's about a number. A compounded number of how many positives vs. negatives. Now it's about, 'What's your Rotten Tomatoes score?'
Batman v Superman, directed by Zach Snyder, grossed nearly $900 million worldwide, but only has a 27 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ratner called that "sad, because ... it put a cloud over a movie that was incredibly successful."
"People don't realize what goes into making a movie like that. It's mind-blowing," he said.
Rotten Tomatoes defended its role in the movie industry to Entertainment Weekly, with a spokesperson saying it had become "a useful decision-making tool for fans, but we believe it's just a starting point for them to begin discussing, debating and sharing their own opinions".
Ratner was rapidly criticised for his comments, with people saying he was deflecting the issue away from bad filmmaking.