In a bygone era, the highest-grossing films of all time were well-reviewed, iconic pictures: Gone with the Wind, Star Wars, E.T., Titanic (sorry about that last one, Kenneth Turan). Nowadays, though, it seems that the waxing of the global market coupled with the waning influence of film critics has produced a scenario where just about any heavily-marketed sequel can dominate the worldwide box office, no matter the reviews. Slashfilm decided to investigate, devising a formula that would pit a film's cash haul against its Rotten Tomatoes score in order to find the worst-reviewed movie that nevertheless boasted the biggest box office.
And just like that, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen claimed the top spot, marrying its 19% fresh Tomatometer to a so-far $607 million worldwide total for a Slashfilm "indignity score" of 31.9. (The first film charted far better, riding its comparatively kinder reviews to a score of 12.4). Coming in behind the Transformers sequel were The Da Vinci Code, the latter two installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and Hancock. Yay, this decade has been great!
ยท The Worst Reviewed Highest Grossing Movie Of All-Time? [Slashfilm]