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Amazon Prime Video Has More Movies, But Netflix Has Higher-Rated Films, Study Says (usatoday.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

When you want to watch a movie, which streaming service truly delivers? If you want quality, opt for Netflix. If you prefer quantity, peruse Amazon Prime Video. From a report: That's the conclusion from Streaming Observer. The tech news website looked at all of the movies on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and HBO Now as of January 20 and analyzed the films' ratings on movie and TV review site Rotten Tomatoes. Also factored in: data from the streaming providers, as well as third-party search sites Reelgood and JustWatch. The site found Amazon had the most movies (17,461) -- four times that of Netflix (3,839) and many more times the amount on Hulu (2,336) and HBO (815). But Netflix had more movies -- 596, more than 15 percent of its library -- with a "Certified Fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes, a designation given to the best-reviewed films.

40 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The top rated movie of ALL TIME on Rotten Tomatoes is "Black Panther". So....yeah.

    1. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not sure why I am being modded down. The "ratings" on Rotten Tomatoes mean nothing. The 3rd top rated movie of all time is "Lady Bird" and the 5th is "Get Out" and 7th is "Mad Max: Fury Road". The best movies of all time. Think about that.

    2. Re:Certified Fresh by Desler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, it's almost as if opinions vary from person to person. Shocking!

    3. Re:Certified Fresh by quenda · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, it's almost as if opinions vary from person to person. Shocking!

      Yes, but not randomly. There is some critical consensus, and those movies, while not bad, are surprising to see in an all-time top list.

    4. Re:Certified Fresh by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      Not sure why I am being modded down. The "ratings" on Rotten Tomatoes mean nothing. The 3rd top rated movie of all time is "Lady Bird" and the 5th is "Get Out" and 7th is "Mad Max: Fury Road". The best movies of all time. Think about that.

      Rotten Tomatoes "help" but it isn't the whole story. Generally better films will get higher ratings and worse films will get lower ratings. There are exceptions for various reasons- but it can help. It's all subjective though.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    5. Re:Certified Fresh by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      Yeah, it's almost as if opinions vary from person to person. Shocking!

      Yes, but not randomly. There is some critical consensus, and those movies, while not bad, are surprising to see in an all-time top list.

      A lot of newer movies will be more extreme at one end or the other as people who rushed out to the cinema to see them either think they're "the best ever" or "the worst ever". Ratings tend to get more accurate over time. Newer films tend to be driven to either extremes.

      You can probably trust a "5 year old film"'s reviews than a "1 year old film"'s reviews.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    6. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well I do disagree with the Wizard of Oz being one of the top 5 (but that is just my opinion), but do you seriously think "Black Panther" is the BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME? And "Mad Max: Fury Road" is the fifth??? The ratings are worthless because it is obviously gamed by a bunch of script kiddies.

    7. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Or it is gamed by a bunch of script kiddies. Either way, the ratings are useless.

    8. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 3

      What person truly believes that Black Panther (or even Mad Max: Fury Road) are in the top 5 movies of all time??? I liked both movies, but they will both be forgotten in a few years.

    9. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Wonder Woman is listed as the 12th best movie OF ALL TIME on Rotten Tomatoes. "A Quiet Place" is 16th. Of the best movies of all time. Of every movie ever made in the history of cinema.

    10. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      " Generally better films will get higher ratings and worse films will get lower ratings."

      Obviously not. Look at the lists: https://www.rottentomatoes.com.... The ratings are useless.

    11. Re:Certified Fresh by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      No. The Rotten Tomatoes score is based on whoever gamed the system. My entire point is saying Netflix has "higher rated" films is useless, because the RT ratings are meaningless. I am not insulting people precious super hero movies. I liked Black Panther, but it isn't the BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME like RT claims.

    12. Re:Certified Fresh by Altus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or it has something to do with the fact that a shit load of people have seen Black Panther since the site existed but most people haven't been re-watching citizen cane and thinking "yah know what, I should review that on rotten tomatoes"

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    13. Re:Certified Fresh by godrik · · Score: 2

      Personally, I have always taken this kind of online rating with a 20% confidence interval. I use to read IMDB scores like that:
      >9 people got super excited about it. Probably the movie does not deserve that score but that also means it is probably going to become some kind of a cultural reference. So you probably want to watch it.
      >8 There is a consensus that the movie is decent.
      >7 People who are not particularly about that style of movie liked it fine. It is a good bet you'll like it too.
      >6 About only the people enthusiastic about that type of movie found it enjoyable. Approach with care.
      https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0...
      Titanic https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0...

      Now when you see a movie with more than half a point of shift you know there is something going on:
      The ghostbusters all female reboot https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1...
      The girl next door https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0...

      You'll see movie with a clear age scoring difference. That probably means something too.

    14. Re:Certified Fresh by Cederic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It offers no subjective opinion if a movie is "the best" which is what you are trying to making it out to be.

      No, he quite clearly isn't making it out to be that. He's very clearly highlighting that the article's description of 'higher rated films' is based on a demonstrably flawed measure.

      Rotten Tomatoes also categorically offers only a subjective opinion. If there was any objectivity at all then the examples he's quoted would never have made the top 5 - and if you disagree with that, do please articulate the objective criteria that would grant them such lofty status.

      Seems you want to apply a Strawman argument.

      The fucking irony.

    15. Re:Certified Fresh by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      "All lists are sorted by Adjusted Score" there is even a score. Frankly you just don't want to admit what is clear to everyone else: The rating doesn't mean what you are trying to make it mean. This is just a strawman argument over and over again.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    16. Re:Certified Fresh by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Informative

      The top rated movie of ALL TIME on Rotten Tomatoes is "Black Panther". So....yeah.

      A) Actually, it's not. It's the top ranked using their "Adjusted Score", but it's not the top rated, which should have been obvious, given that it has a 97% rating currently and there are plenty of films with a 100% rating.

      B) If you hover over the ? on the Best of RT page, you'll see that their Adjusted Score is calculated using a Bayesian formula that's designed to account for variations in the number of reviewers per movie. I.e. More reviewers in agreement will result in a higher Adjusted Score. As such, it should be fairly obvious that their Adjusted Score will be biased towards more recent films (i.e. ones with more reviews).

      C) A bias towards more recent films is a feature, not a bug, given that it helps their users discover films they haven't yet seen that are more likely to be available, which is basically the entire point of Rotten Tomatoes. They aren't the AFI, BAFTA, or Academy. They make no claim to being the arbiters of all that is good in film.

      D) Despite the bias, the top 10 still contains three films (The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, The Third Man) from the last century, and every set of 10 after that contains 4 to 7 films from the last century, suggesting that it's still doing a pretty good job at bubbling up the best films, even if they're not necessarily ranked in the top 100 in the order we might think they should be.

      But, perhaps most importantly, your argument is missing the point entirely. The question of good vs. great—should Black Panther be ranked higher than Citizen Kane?—doesn't matter when we're talking about the overall quality of streaming libraries. What matters is whether they do a good job at distinguishing good vs. bad—that they correctly labeled Black Panther and Citizen Kane as "Certified Fresh" while not giving that label to most of the schlock that comes out each day. Towards that end, it seems like Certified Fresh is a decent indicator of quality, even if you (and I, just to be clear) might disagree with how they rank individual films within the Certified Fresh set.

    17. Re:Certified Fresh by squiggleslash · · Score: 2
      Because it's dumb. There are three ratings RT uses.

      Certified Fresh/Rotten - more movie critics liked the movie than disliked it or vice versa.
      Average rating - the average rating the critics gave it
      Audience score - the average rating readers of the site gave it

      If you're trying to find the top ten movies of all time, then sure, all these metrics have problems and you would be being stupid for trying to use them for that application.

      However, for the study "Does this platform show better movies than that platform", the first of the metrics (the binary "critics like/dislike this") is good enough for the purpose. It's unbiased, it's easy to understand, and it's fairly unlikely a "good" movie will end up in the wrong category. Not impossible, but rare enough that it won't impact the study's results.

      Sources of data are rarely perfect, but doesn't mean all data is useless. You think the data scientists use to calculate the width of the event horizon of Sagittarius A* is accurate enough that you could send a space ship there and guarantee it wouldn't get sucked in? No. But it's good enough that you have a strong idea of the magnitude of its size and you can compare it to other massive black holes.

      This is the same principle. We're not trying to find out if Black Panther is better than Reservoir Dogs. We're trying to find out if Amazon hosts better movies than Netflix, and have thousands of samples to choose from.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    18. Re:Certified Fresh by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

      Or it has something to do with the fact that a shit load of people have seen Black Panther since the site existed

      But aren't the percentages they're using, or at least showing, based off of the professional movie critics score? If you click on Black Panther the critic score is 97% but the audience score is 79%. The critics score is based off of 448 review while the audience score is based off of 84,175 reviews.

      The Wizard of Oz is in the number 2 spot with 111 critic reviews at 98% while 875,492 people on the audience side rated it at 89%.

      Lady Bird is number 3 and the 349 critics rated it for an average of 99%. While on the audience side it's at 79% from 20,663 people.

      I haven't seen Lady Bird, but have seen both Black Panther and Wizard of Oz. While I enjoy both movies for different reasons, I don't think I'd place either as better than Citizen Kane. Not that I would ever be likely to try to personally rate all three of those movies on a single list. They are all much different in my mind and which I would prefer to watch would depend on what kind of mood I happen to be in at the time.

    19. Re:Certified Fresh by lgw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're modded down because Slashdot moderation is almost entirely political reflex these days.

      Rotten Tomatoes critic scores are just garbage. They reflect whether a movie is "the sort of movie people should see" in the mind of critics, not whether a movie will be engaging or entertaining. That was fine back in the day when that just meant boring, incomprehensible art-house films would be on top: ask an enthusiast for a recommendation and you're unlikely to get something practical. It was easy to ignore those and get real value from critics. Now it's all politics, and fuck that noise.

      Rotten Tomatoes viewer scores are pretty good. Sure, you have to adjust for the lowest common denominator, and discount broad comedies and Transformers movies, but that's easy.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  2. Wither technical discussion by chrism238 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, how the articles on Slashdot keep getting less and less technical over time :-(

    1. Re:Wither technical discussion by Thelasko · · Score: 2

      Oh, how the articles on Slashdot keep getting less and less technical over time :-(

      I noticed you haven't made any submissions since 2014.

      Slashdot is a democratic system. If you don't like what you see, do something about it!

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    2. Re:Wither technical discussion by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      How many technical articles have you submitted this week and how many of them were rejected? Is the problem Slashdot, or is it that people are more concerned with complaining rather than fixing a platform that is essentially heavily reliant on it's own users deciding what defines good content?

      Why not help fix the things you find wrong: https://slashdot.org/submissio...

    3. Re:Wither technical discussion by garcia · · Score: 2

      As someone who has been reading since 1996 or 1997, people have been making this complaint all along but I don't see much of a difference between then and now.

      Plus, IMO, this is the sort of story which nerds may care about and falls under the tagline piece, "stuff that matters."

      YMMV.

    4. Re:Wither technical discussion by Thelasko · · Score: 2

      Complaining about Slashdot stories and not making submissions is like complaining about the government and not voting.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  3. Paying extra counts in their listing? by bussdriver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I tried Prime many of the shows were only listed and required paying more $$$ to view them. It didn't appear to have that many shows included in the subscription or at least anything looking worth watching was not included.

    --
    Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
    1. Re:Paying extra counts in their listing? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      When I tried Prime many of the shows were only listed and required paying more $$$ to view them. It didn't appear to have that many shows included in the subscription or at least anything looking worth watching was not included.

      When (how long ago) did you try it?

      Also, TFA is referring to Prime Video, which is the stuff that is included.

    2. Re:Paying extra counts in their listing? by Agent0013 · · Score: 2

      And exact words in the title don't find the movie you are looking for. Plenty of completely unrelated stuff shows up though. I had to use google to get the full title of an Amazon Prime made show to get their search to find it once I put the full title in. Parts of the title were not enough. I have seen this happen many times, their interface and search is that bad. Plus, there is nothing good to watch there just like the article says. Netflix is my goto for watching TV, Amazon Prime is a waste of space and I never even fire it up unless it is to actually rent something with real money.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  4. Certified Fresh != Ranking of best movies ever by sjbe · · Score: 2

    Not sure why I am being modded down.

    Because you didn't make a useful or thoughtful point in the opinion of the moderators. And that fact is the answer to why certain movies have high Rotten Tomatoes scores. So Black Panther evidently has the highest ranking by whatever metrics Rotten Tomatoes uses. So what? It's just a ranking by some arbitrary metric. If that movie happens to be Black Panther then so be it. That isn't a problem. Lots of people consider it to be a very good movie worth watching and it's super popular with some demographics. Other movies would top the list by other criteria.

    The best movies of all time. Think about that.

    Ahh there is your error. It isn't a ranking of "best" movies. Never was. It's just a consensus opinion of whether a movie is worth considering spending time to see. It's not some sort of Academy Award for best picture of all time. Don't confuse the two.

    1. Re: Certified Fresh != Ranking of best movies ever by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've never found Rotten Tomatoes to be particularly useful. IMDb seems much more sane:

      https://www.imdb.com/search/ti...

    2. Re:Certified Fresh != Ranking of best movies ever by doom · · Score: 2

      Didn't Ryan Coogler actively solicit his fans to hit the rottentomatoes ratiings system? That would be the point the OP was trying to make.

      Now myself, I couldn't care less about rottentomatoes rankings, and Black Panther is a decent movie (but it wasn't even the best of 2018-- try "Sorry to Bother You")-- the point here would be that crowd-sourced ranking (typically with anonymous accounts without verified IDs!) aren't actually worth anything. The only time they won't be gamed is if no one cares enough about them to do it.

  5. Bargain bins by TJHook3r · · Score: 2

    Wading through films on Amazon is like looking through the ex-rental bucket at Blockbuster, can't speak for Netflix. Give me two episodes of a half-decent series over a crappy film anyday - who's got time for rubbish when there is so much choice available, at any time of day?

  6. Re:Why only those services? by flood78 · · Score: 2

    You mean like Titanic 2?

  7. Good point but... by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Although I totally agree with your revelation about the top rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes, in general I agree with the statement that Netflix more often has content I actually want to see, while Prime does have a wider range of movies but most of them are mediocre.

    That's after many years of owning and using both services.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Good point but... by Cederic · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Oddly that makes Amazon Prime a better service for me.

      If a movie is genuinely good (above and beyond mere competent) then I've probably already seen it. If it's a great movie then I probably have a copy at home to watch on demand.

      It's the other films that I haven't seen yet, that may actually be superb but too niche to receive mainstream recognition, that I want to see.

      E.g. I saw the other day an advert for a new film about human trafficking, almost guaranteed a top rating on Rotten Tomatoes, likely to win a dozen different awards.

      Meanwhile Lilya 4-ever is "Fresh: 58" despite completely and viciously depicting a compelling and realistic story on exactly the same theme.

      I'd rather watch the foreign language independent film that isn't scared to properly explore its subject than the widely acclaimed Hollywood virtue piece.

  8. More, but good luck finding what you want by doggo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sure, Amazon has way more. But (at least through the ROKU app) good luck trying to find an interesting movie, even if it's not top-rated, that's free through Prime membership.

    Almost any worthwhile film, even old black and white movies, is usually for rent or sale, rather than free through Prime. And browsing through the entire mess is more trouble than it's worth.

  9. But by rossdee · · Score: 2

    Nobody gets Prime for the videos.

    Its for the 2 day free shipping.

  10. Re:Better GUI or Forget about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Amazon has probably the worst interface on PC to get to their movies. Most apps to search are much better but not great. Until they fix the GUI the video that comes with Amazon Prime is just a bonus to the shipping option. Just copy Netflix and be done with it already!

    At least with Amazon you can hover to see the rating of the movie or show. Easy to cherry pick good content. With Netflix, I don't know if a move is crap without bouncing over to Rotten Tomatoes and searching. And no, I don't trust Netflix's recommendation % outside of genre.

    Amazon has strong original content and an extensive library of quality British / Euro shows, which I personally enjoy. In aggregate, my feeling is that Amazon provides a better overall content experience that Netflix.

  11. Back to DVDs (Blu-ray)!!! by BishopBerkeley · · Score: 2

    I cancelled Netflix last year. I cancelled Amazon Prime last month. I did that because our local video store, Salzer's in Ventura, CA, is a superb video store with English and foreign titles that not many streaming services have. I pay $60 a year to access the PBS archives through my digital devices, and I have a large credit balance with iTunes for software and digital movie rentals. This arrangement allows me to find movie gems at my video store, get the best news and documentary through PBS and get all of the frivolous Hollywood stuff through iTunes. I no longer waste time scrolling through endless screens of stupid movies that some dickhead "suggests" to me. Support your local indie video store. Salzer's in Ventura. Cinefile in West LA. Please put up the names of your local killer video stores. Algorithms have yet to better good taste. Of all the Netflix suggestions, I must confess that the Dead Snow movies and Look Who's Back were truly excellent.

    --
    "...who search the reason of things
    Are those who bring the most sorrow on themselves." --Euripides, The Medea
  12. Re:Quality vs Convenience by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most of the good stuff I saw on prime required the extra fee. The movie rental is nice, but you can do the rental even without being a Prime member, and get the same rentals from other streaming services as well. For a television series though I think the extra fee is not worth the cost per episode.

    Prime is like Apple TV, it mostly appeals to those who are already part of the parent company's ecosystem. If Prime Video users had to pay the additional cost separately from their "free shipping" yearly subscription then it would drastically drop in popularity.