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What should I watch tonight?
Pick a mood and get three: the masterpiece, what's trending and a recent hit.
MovieLantern puts the scores people already trust into one number, then tells you where to watch.
Every platform score is first put on a 10-point scale: IMDb as it is, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic divided by 10 (97% is 9.7, 100 is 10), Letterboxd doubled. A missing platform is skipped, never counted as zero; one platform is enough. When none has a score yet, the TMDB audience rating is used.
| Step | Movies | TV shows | Anime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Letterboxd | IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes | IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Letterboxd |
| 1. Average | A = sum of the platform scores ÷ number of platforms | ||
| 2. Oscars | Best Picture, Director or acting: win +0.5, nomination +0.2, added to the sum before dividing | – | Same as movies |
| 3. Category score | C = average of the points from the table below (two of IMDb, Metacritic and Letterboxd at a level put C at least at that level; Oscar bonus added) | ||
| 4. Category rule | If C is above A: +0.2 | ||
| 5. Emmys | – | +0.01 for each Primetime Emmy win | – |
| 6. Votes for 9+ | 100,000 on one platform | 70,000 on one platform | 40,000 across all platforms |
| Top score | 9.9 (no Lantern Score is a perfect 10). Short of the votes above, a 9+ is held at 8 and marked “Needs more votes”. | ||
| Points | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Letterboxd* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8.5+ | 88%+ | 80+ | 4.2+ |
| 9 | 8.1–8.4 | 84–87% | 75–79 | 3.8–4.1 |
| 8 | 7.8–8.0 | 80–83% | 70–74 | 3.4–3.7 |
| 7 | 7.0–7.7 | 75–79% | 62–69 | 3.1–3.3 |
| 6 | 6.0–6.9 | 65–74% | 50–61 | 2.8–3.0 |
| 5 | 5.0–5.9 | 50–64% | 40–49 | 2.5–2.7 |
| 4 | 4.0–4.9 | 35–49% | 30–39 | 2.2–2.4 |
| 3 | 3.0–3.9 | 20–34% | 20–29 | 1.9–2.1 |
| 2 | 2.0–2.9 | 10–19% | 10–19 | 1.6–1.8 |
| 1 | below 2.0 | below 10% | below 10 | below 1.6 |
Movie: The Godfather has IMDb 9.2, Rotten Tomatoes 97% (9.7) and Metacritic 100 (10), and won Best Picture: (9.2 + 9.7 + 10 + 0.5) ÷ 3 = 9.8. A movie averaging 8.5 with a higher category score (9.3) gets +0.2, so 8.7.
TV show: an average of 8.3 with a category score of 9 gets +0.2, so 8.5. A show averaging 9.1 with a higher category score and 59 Emmy wins: 9.1 + 0.2 + 0.59 = 9.89, shown as 9.9.
* Letterboxd is part of the formula but is not connected yet, so it is skipped for now. For anime, MyAnimeList is used on the IMDb scale when available.
Our Pick: a gold diamond for titles with a Lantern Score of 8 or higher.
Masterpiece: a ruby diamond for titles with a Lantern Score of 9 or higher.
Members rate titles from 1 to 9, and each score has a tag: 1–3 Won't recommend, 4–5 Timepass, 6–7 Good, 8–9 Great. A 10 (Perfection) can only be given to titles with a diamond.
Titles, cast, images and trailers come from TMDB. Streaming, rental and purchase options come from JustWatch through TMDB. IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores come through the OMDb API (CC BY-NC 4.0); Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores also come from Wikidata (CC0) when OMDb has none. Award data comes from Wikidata. MovieLantern is not affiliated with or endorsed by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Letterboxd, TMDB or JustWatch.
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