Kung Fu Panda 4’s Rotten Tomatoes Scores Are A Divisive Franchise First

The reactions to Kung Fu Panda 4 on Rotten Tomatoes make its scores a divisive franchise first after 16 years. DreamWorks brought the Kung Fu Panda franchise back in 2024, eight years after the last installment of the original trilogy. Jack Black’s return as Po after almost a decade meant that there was plenty of anticipation for Kung Fu Panda 4. The animated franchise set a high bar with the quality of the previous three Kung Fu Panda movies, and that translated to major box office hauls and a generally favorable reception from all audiences.

This only brought higher expectations for what Kung Fu Panda 4 needed to do to please audiences again. The hope was that the franchise’s return after so much time would prove to be a worthy expansion on Po’s story instead of a soulless cash grab for DreamWorks. Kung Fu Panda 4‘s Rotten Tomatoes scores are one way to determine how happy audiences and critics are with the film. Now, the film is responsible for setting a divisive franchise first as its Rotten Tomatoes scores set a few Kung Fu Panda records.

Kung Fu Panda 4 Has The Franchise’s Highest Audience Score On Rotten Tomatoes

DreamWorks can rest assured that audiences have clearly enjoyed Kung Fu Panda 4. This is not only evident by the film’s near-franchise record opening weekend at the box office but also through the popular aggregator. Kung Fu Panda 4‘s Audience Score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes set a franchise record high by beating the original Kung Fu Panda. The first film in the franchise received an 83% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes based on over 250,000 ratings. Kung Fu Panda 4 has a smaller sample size to pull from, as its score comes from over 500 verified ratings.

Despite the gap in the number of ratings attributed to Kung Fu Panda 4 due to its newness and changes to how Rotten Tomatoes verifies audience participation, the record-high score is still impressive. This is because Kung Fu Panda 4‘s average rating is still higher than Kung Fu Panda‘s. Kung Fu Panda 4 scored an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 among verified ratings and 4.1 out of 5 among all ratings. Both numbers are higher than Kung Fu Panda‘s 4 out of 5 average rating, even though Kung Fu Panda 4‘s All Audience score is lower at 82%.

Kung Fu Panda 4’s Critics Rating On Rotten Tomatoes Is A Franchise Low

The bad news for Kung Fu Panda 4‘s Rotten Tomatoes scores is that its critics rating set a bad franchise record. Among the 102 reviews collected on the review aggregator, Kung Fu Panda 4 has a franchise-low 71% Critics Score on Rotten Tomatoes. This record low is a drastic drop from the franchise’s previously worst critics score, Kung Fu Panda 2‘s 81%. It is still notable that every Kung Fu Panda movie has Fresh scores from audiences and critics, meaning the franchise has avoided receiving the dreaded “Rotten” label at any point so far.

That said, Kung Fu Panda 4‘s low Critics Score is worse the deeper the data gets. The movie has a 65% score from Rotten Tomatoes’ Top Critics with an average score of 6 out of 10. That is much lower than the previous record lows, also set by Kung Fu Panda 2. The 2011 sequel has a 77% score from Top Critics for an average score of 6.6 out of 10. Meanwhile, the difference between Kung Fu Panda 4‘s All Critics and Top Critics scores ties a franchise record set by Kung Fu Panda.

Kung Fu Panda 4 Has The Franchise’s Biggest Rotten Tomatoes Gap

By setting the Kung Fu Panda franchise record high Audience Score and record low Critics Score, Kung Fu Panda 4 broke the franchise record for biggest gap between its Rotten Tomatoes scores. The film’s 71% Critics Score and 87% Audience Score means there is a difference of 16 percentage points. That is double the previous franchise record set by Kung Fu Panda 3. It also continues a trend where the gap between audience and critics enjoyment grows with each installment.

What makes the Kung Fu Panda movies’ Rotten Tomatoes gaps all the more fascinating is that Kung Fu Panda 4‘s gap is noticeably different. The original three movies all had gaps where critics enjoyed them more than audiences. However, Kung Fu Panda 4 is the franchise’s first movie to have a higher Audience Score than Critics Score. Its possible audiences are pleased to have another adventure with Po after eight years, while critics were generally harsher on the material. In any case, Kung Fu Panda 4‘s Rotten Tomatoes scores are different than the franchise’s typical response.