Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s Rotten Tomatoes is the worst for the Guardians trilogy, but also one of the MCU’s best audience scores.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 caps off James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy with mostly positive reviews and a “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score, but how does that compare to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The Guardians of the Galaxy movies have always been some of the more popular movies in the MCU with both audiences and critics, but a few key differences in the reviews for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 make it stand out from other MCU movies and the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

The MCU had an impressive streak of consecutive Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores, releasing 25 movies over the course of 13 years before earning their first “Rotten” score when reviews for Eternals gave it a 47 percent in Rotten Tomatoes. Since then, Phase 4 and 5 of the MCU saw a few more critical stumbles, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earning the shared universe’s second Rotten score with another 47 percent. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 doesn’t continue that trend, but its Rotten Tomatoes score does stand out from the rest of the MCU and other Guardians of the Galaxy movies in a few key ways.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s Rotten Tomatoes Score is Exactly the MCU average

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reviews give it an 81 percent Fresh score in Rotten Tomatoes, which is an exact match to the MCU’s overall average of 81 percent. Since it’s a perfect match, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s Rotten Tomatoes score doesn’t have an impact on the overall average, although if it were simply one point higher at 82 percent, it would have rounded the MCU average Rotten Tomatoes score to 82 percent as well. While it could have had a slight impact on the overall MCU average, even if Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had earned a 100 percent, it still would have only brought the overall average to 82 percent.

Despite hitting the MCU average for all critic reviews in Rotten Tomatoes, the platforms specially selected “Top Critics” gave it a much lower 66 percent, eight points below the MCU’s 74 percent Rotten Tomatoes Top Critic average. In fact, the 15-point split between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s 81 percent critic score and 66 percent Top Critic score in Rotten Tomatoes is tied with Thor: The Dark World and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for the biggest split between critics and Top Critics in the MCU. Every single movie in the MCU has a lower score from Top Critics than from all critics, but the average difference is only 7 points.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the Lowest-Rated Guardians Movie on Rotten Tomatoes

Thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s 81 percent Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, all three Guardians of the Galaxy movies are “Certified Fresh” in Rotten Tomatoes; however, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s score isn’t quite as fresh as its predecessors. With a 92 percent, the original Guardians of the Galaxy is still the highest-rated movie in the trilogy, while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s 85 percent comes in second place, meaning Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s 81 percent is the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.

While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reviews aren’t quite as glowing as the first two Guardians movies, the trilogy is still one of the best trilogies in the MCU. The top-rated MCU trilogy is Spider-Man with a 91 percent average, Guardians of the Galaxy is the second-highest trilogy with 86 percent, Captain America is third with 85 percent, Iron Man is fourth with 80 percent, Thor is fifth (with four movies) at 75 percent, and Ant-Man is sixth with 72 percent. If The Avengers crossovers are included, their average would be second-highest at 89 percent – bumping Guardians of the Galaxy to third place.

Guardians of the Galaxy Has the MCU’s Second-Best Audience Score in Rotten Tomatoes

Its reviews from critics may only give Guardians of the Galaxy an average Rotten Tomatoes score compared to other MCU movies, but its 95 percent audience score is the second-highest Rotten Tomatoes audience score in the MCU behind Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s 96 percent audience score. Audience scores tend to fall at least a few points after opening weekend, so it may not retain its second-place rank in the coming weeks, but with Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings at 94, Spider-Man: Far From Home at 93 percent, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy at 92 percent, it’ll still be among the top-rated audience scores in the MCU.

While Rotten Tomatoes’ critic scores aren’t always determinant of a movie’s success, Rotten Tomatoes audience scores historically serve as a much stronger indicator of a movie’s success both at the box office and on streaming. Unfortunately, there are a number of major issues with Rotten Tomatoes’ audience data, especially with movies released before 2010, but on average it’s still at least a generally accurate measurement of audience sentiment.

Phase 5 Rotten Tomatoes average is still the MCU’s worst

Despite a flawless Rotten Tomatoes track record for the movies in Phases 1-3 of the MCU, Phase 4 and 5 have both struggled with Eternals earning the MCU’s first Rotten score in Phase 4 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earning the second Rotten score in Phase 5. Overall, the MCU’s box office and Rotten Tomatoes scores peaked with Avengers: Endgame and have trended down in the movies released since then. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s 81 percent is good on its own, but after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicked off Phase 5 with a 47 percent, it means the Phase 5 average is now just 64 percent.

Phase 1 of the MCU had an average Rotten Tomatoes score of 80 percent, Phase 2 increased slightly to 81 percent, and Phase 3 saw the MCU’s best overall Rotten Tomatoes average with 89 percent. Phase 4 saw a sharp drop down to 76 percent, and now, after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Phase 5’s 64 percent average is the worst in the MCU. With The Marvels coming up next, the MCU needs to string together a run of Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores to bring the Phase 5 average and reverse the downward trend.

While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s 81 percent Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t the best of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and only meets the average score from the rest of the MCU, it’s still a solid hit and much-needed Fresh score after a bit of a rough patch for the MCU. Thanks to one of the MCU’s best audience scores, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 serves as a fitting end note for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.