Rotten Tomatoes Scraper

Rotten Tomatoes Scraper

Scrape Rotten Tomatoes movie and TV show listings, sorted by popularity, newest, or top rated, up to a million titles per run. Each title comes with its Tomatometer score, audience score, release date, and synopsis. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews from critics and audiences into a single score, but browsing thousands of titles manually is slow. This actor reads the public movie and TV show listings directly, filtered by category and sort order, and returns each match in one consistent schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape Rotten Tomatoes for
Film distributors	Monitor which new releases are trending with audiences and critics.
Content curators	Build a searchable database of top-rated films for a recommendation engine.
Market researchers	Track genre popularity shifts by analyzing the top-rated titles over time.
Entertainment journalists	Identify the most popular new movies to prioritize for review coverage.

What it does

This Actor collects Rotten Tomatoes movie or TV show listings by browse type and sort order, and returns each title as a flat row.

• 🎬 Movies or TV shows: switch between browsing the movie catalog or the TV series catalog.
• 📊 Flexible sorting: collect titles by popularity, newest additions, or top-rated scores.
• 📈 Scalable volume: set a maximum from 1 to 1,000,000 titles to control the run size.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Rotten Tomatoes data

🎯 Build a watchlist of top-rated new releases.

A streaming service analyst runs the actor weekly with the 'newest' and 'top_rated' sort to identify acquisition targets that are both fresh and critically acclaimed.

📊 Track critic vs. audience sentiment gaps.

A data journalist collects the most popular movies and compares the Tomatometer and audience scores to find titles with the biggest rating divides for a story.

🔍 Monitor competitor catalogs.

A studio executive scrapes the top-rated TV shows list monthly to see which series from rival networks are dominating the conversation.

📋 Populate a movie database with fresh metadata.

A developer runs the actor to seed a personal project with synopses, scores, and release dates for thousands of films without manual entry.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Tomatometer score	The official critic approval rating for each title.
Audience score	The percentage of users who rated the title positively.
Release date	The theatrical or streaming premiere date.
Synopsis	A brief plot summary for quick content scanning.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Rotten Tomatoes the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Rotten Tomatoes Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Rotten Tomatoes changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor by selecting a browse type and a sort order, and the maximum items limit controls how many titles reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "browseType": "movies",
 "sortBy": "popular",
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "browseType": "movies",
 "sortBy": "popular",
 "maxItems": 200
}

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Rotten Tomatoes Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Rotten Tomatoes through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/rottentomatoes-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting fewer results than my max items setting?

The actor stops when it has exhausted the available listings for your chosen browse type and sort order. Try a different sort order or switch between movies and TV shows to access more titles.

The run failed with a timeout error. What should I do?

A very high max items value can cause long runtimes. Try reducing the maximum titles or increasing the run timeout in the actor's advanced settings.

Some titles are missing their Tomatometer score.

Titles without enough critic reviews may not have a Tomatometer score yet. This is normal for very new or obscure releases and is not a scraping error.

I selected TV shows but got movie results.

Double-check that the browse type is set to 'TV Shows' and not 'Movies'. The default setting is movies, so you must change it manually before starting the run.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Can I scrape both movies and TV shows in one run?	No, each run targets either movies or TV shows based on the browse type you select. Run the actor twice with different settings to collect both.
What does the Tomatometer score represent?	The Tomatometer score is the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given title. It is the primary critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Is an API key or login required to use this actor?	No. This actor reads the public listing pages directly, so you do not need a Rotten Tomatoes account or API key.
How many titles can I scrape in a single run?	You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 titles. The actual number collected depends on how many titles are available for your chosen browse type and sort order.
Can I filter by genre or release year?	The current input schema supports filtering by browse type and sort order only. Genre and year filtering are not available in this version.
What format is the data exported in?	You can export your dataset in CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML formats directly from the Apify platform.
Does this actor scrape audience reviews or scores?	This actor collects the audience score percentage and the synopsis. It does not scrape the full text of individual user reviews.
How often is the data updated?	The actor fetches live data from Rotten Tomatoes each time it runs. Schedule recurring runs in Apify to keep your dataset current.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Fandango Media, LLC. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.