(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
Take a gander at the top 10 movies of 2022’s box office. The theater-throttling Top Gun: Maverick. Dark noir The Batman. The soulful Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and silly slapstick of Minions: The Rise of Gru. A connective thread between them: They matched their dollar earnings with praise from critics and Fresh scores on the Tomatometer, with Top Gun (the highest domestic grosser of the year with $718 million) flying high with an incredible Certified Fresh 96% from critics and a 99% Audience Score from over 60,000 Verified Ratings. A true meeting of the minds and mass audiences.
But there are outliers in the top 10. Jurassic World Dominion is the most Rotten entry of the franchise, but it’s held on to a Verified 77% Audience Score and made $376 million, so theatergoers generally approved of the dino-cum-locusts mayhem and casting nostalgia bait. And also the critically dragged Black Adam cracked the top 10 box office, rocking a Verified 89% Audience Score.
In that spirit, we’ve put together Rotten 2022 Movies You Loved! Every movie that made over $1 million in theaters with a Rotten Tomatometer score (59% or lower) and a positive Audience Score (60% or higher). These include lit adaptation Where the Crawdads Sing, two from Mark Wahlberg (Father Stu, Uncharted), two from Liam Neeson (Blacklight, Memory) and the Julia Roberts and George Clooney rom-com savior Ticket to Paradise.
There was the disaster (B.O. and genre) Moonfall, tabloid fodder Don’t Worry Darling, and Brad Pitt‘s stylish action/comedy Bullet Train. Once we got the rogues gallery together, we ranked with the highest Audience Score leading. So while critics weren’t fully into these movies, they still put butts in seats (some a few million more than others) — crucial in an economically rocky year — before what looks like a roaring 2023 release lineup. —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 41412%
Critics Consensus: Daisy Edgar-Jones gives it her all, but Where the Crawdads Sing is ultimately unable to distill its source material into a tonally coherent drama.
#2
Adjusted Score: 16256%
Critics Consensus: There’s no denying Gigi & Nate‘s good intentions — but it’s also impossible to ignore this cloying drama’s clunky execution.
#3
Adjusted Score: 44927%
Critics Consensus: Mark Wahlberg is hard-working but miscast in Father Stu, an issue compounded by the way the movie fumbles its fact-based story.
#4
Adjusted Score: 50361%
Critics Consensus: Promisingly cast but misleadingly titled, Uncharted mines its bestselling source material to produce a disappointing echo of superior adventure films.
#5
Adjusted Score: 48978%
Critics Consensus: Black Adam may end up pointing the way to an exciting future for DC films, but as a standalone experience, it’s a wildly uneven letdown.
#6
Adjusted Score: 64568%
Critics Consensus: Ticket to Paradise may not send viewers all the way to the promised land, but this reunion for a pair of megawatt stars is still an agreeably frothy good time.
#7
Adjusted Score: 32061%
Critics Consensus: It has a stellar cast and it’s conceptually progressive, but The 355 squanders it all on a forgettable story, unremarkably told.
#8
Adjusted Score: 8006%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#9
Adjusted Score: 54128%
Critics Consensus: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore avoids some of the pitfalls that plagued its predecessor, but lacks much of the magic that drew audiences into the wizarding world many movies ago.
#10
Adjusted Score: 12961%
Critics Consensus: Turn it off.
#11
Adjusted Score: 32029%
Critics Consensus: A pale facsimile of better action thrillers by star Liam Neeson or director Martin Campbell, Memory proves to be one of their most forgettable efforts yet.
#12
Adjusted Score: 48281%
Critics Consensus: Ralph Fiennes’ solid central performance in The King’s Man is done dirty by this tonally confused prequel’s descent into action thriller tedium.
#13
Adjusted Score: 59873%
Critics Consensus: Studio 666 doesn’t quite take its horror-comedy hybrid to 11, but if you’re in the mood, this cheerfully over-the-top outing is a lot of fun.
#14
Adjusted Score: 43197%
Critics Consensus: Jurassic World Dominion might be a bit of an improvement over its immediate predecessors in some respects, but this franchise has lumbered a long way down from its classic start.
#15
Adjusted Score: 66098%
Critics Consensus: Bullet Train‘s colorful cast and high-speed action are almost enough to keep things going after the story runs out of track.
#16
Adjusted Score: 50558%
Critics Consensus: Despite an intriguing array of talent on either side of the camera, Don’t Worry Darling is a mostly muddled rehash of overly familiar themes.
#17
Adjusted Score: 41238%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#18
Adjusted Score: 46420%
Critics Consensus: The Contractor is caught between message movie and standard-issue action thriller, satisfying neither aim despite strong work from a talented cast.
#19
Adjusted Score: 24553%
Critics Consensus: Cursed with uninspired effects, rote performances, and a borderline nonsensical story, this dreary mess is a vein attempt to make Morbius happen.
#20
Adjusted Score: 43584%
Critics Consensus: Whether Moonfall is so bad it’s good or simply bad will depend on your tolerance for B-movie cheese — but either way, this is an Emmerich disaster thriller through and through.
#21
Adjusted Score: 44608%
Critics Consensus: Easter Sunday‘s refreshing representation is frustratingly undermined by stale gags and an unimaginative approach to its numbingly familiar story.
#22
Adjusted Score: 16238%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#23
Adjusted Score: 56345%
Critics Consensus: While it might be intriguing for Mel Brooks completists, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is an often ungainly blend of kid-friendly animation and grown-up gags.
#24
Adjusted Score: 40770%
Critics Consensus: Amsterdam has a bunch of big stars and a very busy plot, all of which amounts to painfully less than the sum of its dazzling parts.
#25
Adjusted Score: 26533%
Critics Consensus: Despite a very likable lead and a refreshingly light touch, The Invitation is ultimately too predictable to thrill as either a romance or a horror story.
