How the Star Wars movies should be ranked is one of the biggest conversations surrounding the franchise, but their Rotten Tomatoes scores present a very different ranking. Now that the franchise has three complete trilogies across three eras, as well as a couple of spin-off movies, the long-held argument about whether the prequels are as good as the original trilogy has evolved into a much more complicated conversation involving the Disney movies.
The Star Wars original trilogy was one of the most influential series of movies in history, and even if the prequels weren’t as well-received, their technical accomplishments and debates about their quality made them just as relevant, and then the Disney Star Wars movies brought in their own set of controversy and debates as they brought Star Wars into the modern era. Many of the movies in the franchise received glowing critical reviews and were embraced by fans, but a number of movies with far worse reviews and a divided fan response make the entire Star Wars saga a fascinating examination.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, this is how the Star Wars movies rank in Rotten Tomatoes:
1- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back – 94%
2- Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 93%
3- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope – 92%
5- Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 91%
6- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story84%
7- Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi – 82%
8- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith – 80%
9- Solo: A Star Wars Story – 70%
10- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones – 65%
11- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – 52%
12- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – 52%
The first thing to note about these scores is the fact that the original trilogy was released long before Rotten Tomatoes was around and had multiple re-releases impacting their scores, while the prequel trilogy was released as Rotten Tomatoes was in its infancy, and the sequel trilogy and spin-offs were released after Rotten Tomatoes was fully developed. As a result, some of the scores reflect opinion of the Star Wars movies decades after they were released, while others represent the way the movies were received upon their initial release. Even so, that didn’t stop Star Wars: Episode V -The Empire Strikes Back from ranking at the top, which tends to be one of the more popular rankings.
While The Empire Strikes Back has the highest Tomatometer score for All Critics, the order at the top shuffles fairly significantly if ranked by Rotten Tomatoes’ Top Critics score, putting Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the top with a 95 percent, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in second place with 90 percent, Star Wars: A New Hope in third with 86 percent, and The Empire Strikes Back in fourth with 85 percent, and the rest playing out roughly similar to the All Critics scores. Audience Scores for Star Wars movies are, re-shuffle again, ironically grouping by trilogy with the original trilogy first (The Empire Strikes Back is first overall), the sequel trilogy (sans Star Wars: The Last Jedi) second, and the prequel trilogy third, with The Last Jedi in last. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story slots in after the original trilogy at fourth overall, and Solo: A Star Wars Story comes in after Revenge of the Sith at eighth.
Despite the disparity in scores, there’s not nearly as much of a swing when looking at trilogy averages. The original trilogy’s 89 percent average Rotten Tomatoes score is a clear top and the prequel trilogy’s (ironic) 66 percent average is the lowest, but the sequels and the spin-offs both fall adjacent to the franchise’s total average of 78 percent, with the sequels one point higher at 79 percent and the spin-off average coming in at 77 percent.
