Metacritic Announces Top Metascores(R) for Movies Opening this Week

Metacritic Announces Top Metascores(R) for Movies Opening this Week

Highly Anticipated 'The Class' Starring Francois Begaudeau Received a Metascore of 93

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Metacritic (www.metacritic.com), the Web's most robust roundup of entertainment reviews, and a property of CBS Interactive, today announced its weekly Metascores(R) for the week's opening movies as of Friday, Dec. 19, 2008 at 10:30 AM, PT. Metacritic carefully screens and selects the most respected reviewers within each entertainment category and combines all of the individual critics' scores into a Metascore, an overall grade for each release, so users can gauge the critical consensus at a glance. Movie Metascores are compiled using weighted scores from the 41 most respected movie critics and publications in the U.S.

Following is a list of the Metascores for this week's opening movies:

Limited Releases:
"The Class," starring Francois Begaudeau - Metascore = 93
"The Wrestler," starring Mickey Rourke - Metascore = 79
"Moscow, Belgium," starring Barbara Sarafian - Metascore = 74

"Scott Walker: 30 Century Man," starring David Bowie, Radiohead, and Sting - Metascore = 64

"Nothing But the Truth," starring Kate Beckinsale - Metascore = 62

Metascores range from 0-100, with higher scores indicating better overall reviews, and lower scores indicating less favorable reviews from critics. Various ranges of Metascore are also identified by different colors, so you can tell at a glance how critics felt: generally, green scores (61-100) indicate favorable reviews, yellow scores (40 - 60) denote mixed reviews, and red scores (0-39) are used for unfavorable reviews.

The Metascore is considered a weighted average because Metacritic assigns more significance, or weight, to some critics and publications than to others, based on the overall stature and quality of those critics and publications.

In addition to critical reviews, entertainment enthusiasts can also voice their opinions by submitting their own ratings and reviews. By providing a weighted Metascore and an average consumer score for each release, Metacritic helps consumers make informed decisions about how to spend their entertainment dollars and time.

About Metacritic

Called "...the Web's best film review site" by Entertainment Weekly, Metacritic provides access to and summarizes the vast amount of entertainment criticism available online for film, video/DVD, music, games and television. With the belief that multiple opinions are better than one, Metacritic launched in January 2001 and has remained true to its goal to help people make an informed decision about how to spend their money on the many entertainment options available today.

About CBS Interactive

CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation, is the best online content network for information and entertainment. With more than 170 million people visiting its properties each month, it is the 8th largest Web property globally. Its portfolio of leading brands, which include CNET, CBS.com, CBSSports.com, GameSpot, TV.com, BNET and Last.fm, span popular categories like technology, entertainment, sports, news and business.

Source: Metacritic

CONTACT: Leslie Dotson Van Every, +1-415-344-2129,
Leslie.vanevery@cbs.com

Web Site: http://www.metacritic.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/965075.html

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