Metacritic tabulates its critics’ Top 10s

(Happy 1/1/11 every1!) Metacritic charts another way of looking at Top 10 Lists collected from 50 individual critics. Tabulated on the basis of first- and second-place rankings (with points also awarded for every appearance a movie makes on each Top 10), it’s an interesting aggregate for several reasons.¬† It show us that fervent admirers who feel a movie is a perfect ‘100’ can easily overcome the bashing of negative appraisals that sometimes wreck a film’s overall average score. It demonstrates how a movie that may have harsh detractors can still rise to the forefront. When all the negativity is throw out and we focus only on the passionate praise, it’s the 1’s and 2’s that lift a movie to the top of the charts.¬† Why is this approach useful? Because it represents a miniature simplified version of the Academy’s own preferential ballot, where the predominant weight of 1st and 2nd place slots can obliterate the polarizing effect of naysayers.

Half the chart is here on the homepage and the other half is attached after the cut.

Metacritic outlines its accounting methods like this:

• 3 points for each 1st place ranking
• 2 points for each 2nd place ranking
• 1 point for being ranked 3rd ‚Äì 10th, or for being included on an unranked list

Not to hammer the point too hard, but take note of how a few movies with “average” scores in the 70’s surge forward ahead of other films with higher numbers in the 80s and even 90s.

It’s great example of how a polarizing movie that sharply divides lovers from haters really only needs the passionate love of people who name it as a top favorite to nullify all the hate.