Rotten Tomatoes is a widely used American review-aggregation website for film and television, launched in August 1998 by UC Berkeley students Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Its quirky name was inspired by a scene in the 1992 film Léolo, rather than just the traditional practice of throwing tomatoes at bad performances. Initially a passion project for Jackie Chan fans, it quickly grew, and after passing through IGN (2004), Flixster (2010), and Warner Bros. (2011), it was sold to Fandango in 2016, with Warner Bros. retaining a minority stake. By 2018, nearly a third of US adult moviegoers said they checked the site before heading to the cinema, cementing its role as a major cultural influence. However, it has drawn criticism for flattening complex reviews into a simple "fresh" or "rotten" score and for being susceptible to studio manipulation, such as restricting early screenings to favorable critics. The platform has also evolved, adding a dedicated TV section in 2013 and tweaking community features, yet it remains a go-to barometer for public opinion on entertainment.