There was a time when people waited for critic reviews before deciding whether to watch a movie. A positive review from a popular critic could pull crowds into theatres, while a negative one could badly affect box office collections.
But that time has gone.
Today, the real review begins with the audience, not critics.
Especially in the OTT era, the mindset of viewers has completely changed. People are no longer rushing to theatres for every film. They are thinking twice before spending money on tickets, travel, and time. The reason is simple — if a movie is not worth watching in theatres, it will arrive on OTT platforms within a few weeks anyway.
At the same time, audiences also do not want to miss a genuinely good film on the big screen.
This is where audience reviews have become extremely important.
Before booking tickets, most people now check public talk first. They open platforms like X (Twitter), YouTube, or BookMyShow to see what general audience are saying — not just professional critics.
Because to many people, audience reactions feel more genuine and relatable.
A common viewer talks about things that actually matter to another viewer: whether the movie is engaging or boring, whether it has entertaining moments, and most importantly, whether it is truly worth the money. These are the points people care about now.
Critics, on the other hand, often focus more on technical aspects such as screenplay structure, cinematography, writing layers, and filmmaking style. While that kind of analysis has its own value, not every viewer connects with it.
A normal audience usually has a very simple expectation:
“Did the movie entertain me or not?”
That’s all most people care about and because of social media, audience opinions now spread extremely fast. Within the first few shows itself, the fate of a movie is almost decided. If the public talk is positive, collections start growing rapidly. But if the talk is negative, even a big-budget film can slow down quickly at the box office.
In recent years, we have seen several examples where critics gave average or even negative reviews, yet strong audience word of mouth turned those films into successful hits. At the same time, some critically praised movies failed commercially because they could not emotionally connect with the general public.
That clearly shows where the real power lies today.
This does not mean critics are unimportant. They still play an important role in cinema through analysis, discussion, and deeper understanding of films. But when it comes to deciding whether a movie will truly work with the masses, the final verdict now belongs to the audience.
Cinema has changed.
Earlier, the opinion of a few critics could influence a film’s fate.
Today, the audience itself decides everything. What do you say….
