Flixster has purchased the movie review aggregation website RottenTomatoes.com from New Corp’s IGN Entertainment for an undisclosed amount.

The combination of the two movie-related websites makes sense for all three parties involved.  For starters, the two are already partnered in certain Internet ventures.  RottenTomatoes scores are fed to Flixster’s extremely popular mobile application and the ratings are used on Flixster’s user friendly website.  I’m only familiar with Flixster through Facebook, however.The two sites could potentially share even more content, though they stressed in the press release that they will remain two separate entities.  RottenTomatoes especially could benefit from user ratings, an area they’re lacking in, giving them a trustworthy set of scores for film fans.  Together they claim they’ll be reaching a combined 30 million visitors a month.

Meanwhile, IGN can return to focusing on their key male demographic, specifically gamers, while owning a minority stake in Flixster as they continue to grow.  IGN and RottenTomatoes never particularly made much sense from a synergy perspective, but this new deal seems beneficial all around, including users looking for answers about movie releases.

I can only hope this newly formed rating system juggernaut doesn’t overtake the already struggling art of film criticism by replacing it with percentage data and the recommendations of random users.  Ideally a system would emerge where you could share opinions with your friends and select the critics you tend to agree with or enjoy reading.

Published by Jeff Leins