Gone are requirements for publications based on print circulation.

And online critics will no longer be required to have published a minimum of 100 reviews of at least 300 words in length across two calendar years at a site with at least 500,000 unique monthly visitors. The new standard is simply “consistent output for a minimum of two years.”

For the first time, people who review films exclusively via podcast can apply to become Tomatometer-approved. Podcasts must publish at least four episodes a month to be eligible, among other criteria, although Rotten Tomatoes stipulates that “podcasts reaching underrepresented groups will also be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

Rotten Tomatoes also said it would place more emphasis on freelance critics — a reflection, in part, of the diminished state of local newspapers. “In some ways, we were looking at the media landscape as it existed 20 years ago with the old criteria,” Mr. Yanover said. “The world has obviously changed.”

Rotten Tomatoes was founded in 1998 by students at the University of California, Berkeley, who wanted reviews for kung fu movies in one place. The name harks back to medieval times, when villagers would lob spoiled food at criminals in the stocks — a practice later taken up by unsatisfied audiences to express disapproval of subpar performers.

Fandango, the ticket-selling service owned by NBCUniversal, acquired Rotten Tomatoes two years ago. Since then, the Tomatometer has become more ubiquitous (scores now appear on Fandango’s ticketing platforms, for instance), leading to complaints from film studios about the site’s ability to influence box office results. Mr. Yanover and his team have dismissed that concern as overblown.

But Rotten Tomatoes has also unveiled changes in recent months that seem to fall under the Spider-Man doctrine: “with great power comes great responsibility.” Mr. Yanover said that the site spent a year considering how best to make its criteria for critics more inclusive — an effort that led to the hiring of a full-time “critics relations manager,” Jenny Jediny. Rotten Tomatoes in February hired a new editor, Joel Meares, who has worked to deepen its news articles and feature stories.