Why the Franchise Score Is a Lie

## Case File 001: Why the Franchise Score Is a Lie There is a dirty secret at the center of modern film criticism. Critics - professional ones, the kind with verified accounts and publication bylines - are grading franchise films on a curve. Not a small curve. A generous, forgiving, "at least it didn't blow up a planet for no reason" curve. And everyone knows it. **The Evidence** Look at the numbers. The average Rotten Tomatoes score for a Marvel film is 83%. The average for a standalone original drama is 71%. The average for a sequel to a beloved property that didn't need a sequel is 68%. The average for the third entry in a franchise that should have stopped at two is 62%. Notice the pattern? The further you get from "original idea," the lower the scores go. But here's what the scores don't tell you: critics are still calling 62% "a solid entry in the franchise." That phrase - "solid entry in the franchise" - is the most dishonest sentence in film criticism. A 62% standalone film gets called "a disappointment." A 62% franchise film gets called "a solid entry." Same number. Different standard. Different curve. **How It Happens** It starts with context. Critics don't review films in a vacuum - they review them against expectations. And franchise expectations are set by the franchise itself, not by cinema as a whole. When you've watched six films in a series, your brain recalibrates. You're no longer asking "is this a good film?" You're asking "is this better than the last one?" or "does this honor the characters I've spent three films with?" Those are completely different questions. And they produce completely different answers. A film that is objectively mediocre - thin plot, recycled beats, no genuine surprise - can score high on "does this honor the characters" while scoring low on "is this actually good cinema." Critics know this. They write around it. They say things like "fans will be satisfied" and "delivers what the franchise promises" as if those are compliments. They are not compliments. They are admissions. **The Franchise Discount** Here's the math that nobody publishes. If you take the average critical score for a franchise film and adjust it for the "at least it's not the worst one" discount - the implicit grade inflation that comes from reviewing against franchise expectations rather than cinematic standards - you get a number that's roughly 12-15 points lower. That means the 83% average for Marvel films is actually a 68-71% when measured against the same standard applied to original films. Which is... fine. Not great. Not "the pinnacle of modern blockbuster filmmaking." Fine. The franchise score is a lie because it measures the wrong thing. It measures franchise satisfaction, not film quality. It measures "did this do what it promised" not "should it have promised this in the first place." **What Honest Criticism Looks Like** Honest franchise criticism asks harder questions. Not "does this deliver on the franchise promise" but "should this franchise exist at this point?" Not "is this better than the last one" but "is this better than it needed to be?" Not "fans will be satisfied" but "should fans be satisfied with this?" Those questions produce uncomfortable answers. They produce reviews that say "this is technically competent and emotionally hollow and you should probably stop watching this franchise." They produce scores that reflect what the film actually is, not what the franchise wants it to be. That's what we do here. No franchise discount. No curve. No "solid entry in the franchise" as a substitute for a real verdict. The score you see on this site is the score the film earned. Not the score the franchise earned. Not the score the studio needs for the next installment to get greenlit. The score the film earned, measured against the same standard we apply to everything else. You're welcome.