Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has just passed $600 million at the worldwide box office, despite mostly really bad reviews. This is nothing new. Mainstream audiences don’t listen to the critics, and big screen spectacle will almost always win over quality entertainment. Nothing was going to stop me from seeing the movie, not all the bad reviews in the world. It’s an event movie — and I needed to see it for myself. It should be noted that box office should never be looked at as an indication of the mainstream public’s thoughts on a movie (it sold tons of tickets so the mainstream public must’ve loved it) but only an indication of the hype (and in later weeks, possibly word of mouth).

The success of Transformers 2 got me thinking. What is the worst reviewed box office success of all time? Could it be Revenge of the Fallen? Find out what I’ve uncovered after the jump.



What is the worst reviewed highest grossing worldwide release of all time? It’s a tough question.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest earned $1,066.2 Million and has a 53% on the Tomato-meter, making it the largest grossing film to be negatively reviewed, but not necessarily the “worst reviewed highest grossing worldwide release of all time”.

But how do you compare Dead Man’s Chest‘s 53% against Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen‘s 19%? I had to invent a formula to rank these releases. What I did was take the Box Office total and divide it by the tomato-meter rating, which gives us a more balanced unit which relates Box Office to the Critical Analysis. It’s not the most scientific or mathematical way of handling this, but for our purposes, it works. The films below are listed in descending order based on the $/% number, and guess what — Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the worst reviewed highest grossing film of all time.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Box Office: $607.7 Million (so far)

Rotten Tomatoes: 19%

$/%: 31.9

The Da Vinci Code

Box Office: $758.2 Million

Rotten Tomatoes: 24%

$/%: 31.6

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Box Office: $961 Million

Rotten Tomatoes: 45%

&/%: 21.35