Has Rotten Tomatoes changed the definition of "Certified Fresh?"

Cafe Society
1

I thought it was “at least 20 reviews and at least 75% Fresh.”

Now the website says a movie has to be at least 75% Fresh, have at least 40 reviews, AND five of those have to come from “Cream of the Crop” critics.

Am I misremembering the definition? If not, when and why did they change this?

2

It has been changed. I found a version of Rotten Tomatoes from a year ago on archive.org, and this was their definition of “Certified Fresh:”

They didn’t have anything more recent than a year ago on there, so I don’t know when it was changed.

3

Anyone know how they decide which are “cream of the crop” reviews, anyway?

-FrL-

4

It seems to me that the “Cream Of The Crop” reviews are almost all from critics and media outlets that I’ve heard of elsewhere, and a lot (but not all) of the rest are from lesser-known newspapers and websites. But I don’t know if they have an objective standard for it or if it’s just someone’s subjective opinion of the critics’ reputations.