10 Recent Movies Critics Hated (But Audiences LOVED)
2. Dolittle
Critic Score: 15%
Audience Score: 76%
A slightly less-recent example now given that Dolittle is a whole two years old, but one well worth mentioning because, unlike newer movies on this list, its baffling audience score on Rotten Tomatoes has more than 10,000 votes.
It wasn't a secret pre-release that Robert Downey Jr.'s mega-budget Doctor Dolittle reboot was a massively troubled production, undergoing extensive rewrites and reshoots in an attempt to fix a film that just wasn't working.
And so nobody was surprised to see critics lambast the family blockbuster for its witless script, inconsistent visual effects, general lack of charm, and Downey's rare whiff of a performance.
But with a 76% audience rating, Dolittle clearly went down far easier with those simply hoping for their kids to be entertained by Iron Man mugging opposite some CGI talking animals.
The "B" CinemaScore isn't great for a kids' movie, but one where Downey Jr. gives a digital dragon a colonoscopy? It's practically miraculous.
Ultimately Dolittle failed to take flight at the box office - in part because of its reshoot-bloated $175 million budget - and so any prospect of a sequel, reviews be-damned, was immediately dead in the water.