Anya Taylor-Joy’s Rotten Tomatoes scores span a remarkably wide range, from a career-low 18% on Vampire Academy to a near-perfect 97% on Dune: Part Two. Across her 18 theatrical film releases, her work averages around 70% with critics, though individual films tell vastly different stories depending on whether you’re looking at critical consensus or audience reception. Her filmography reveals a performer who has navigated both critical darlings and commercial disappointments, sometimes simultaneously excelling with one group while stumbling with another.
The variation in her scores reflects not just the quality of individual projects but also the fundamental differences between how critics and audiences evaluate film. Her highest-rated films—Dune: Part Two at 97%, The Witch at 91%, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga at 90%, and The Northman at 90%—demonstrate her capability to anchor prestige projects. Yet her lowest-scoring entries show the risks that even talented actors face when joining troubled productions or films that simply don’t land with reviewers.
Table of Contents
- How Do Anya Taylor-Joy’s Rotten Tomatoes Scores Reflect Her Career Trajectory?
- What Are Anya Taylor-Joy’s Highest-Rated Films and Why Do They Matter?
- Why Does the Gap Between Critics and Audience Scores Matter?
- What Do Rotten Tomatoes Scores Actually Tell Us About Film Quality?
- How Has Taylor-Joy’s Critical Reception Evolved Over Time?
- Understanding Taylor-Joy’s Mid-Range Films
- Examining the Critical and Audience Disconnects in Glass and The New Mutants
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Do Anya Taylor-Joy’s Rotten Tomatoes Scores Reflect Her Career Trajectory?
Taylor-Joy’s early career was marked by significant inconsistency. Her debut, Vampire Academy in 2014, earned only 18% from critics while pulling 56% from audiences—a pattern of critics dismissing the film more harshly than viewers. This was followed by Morgan (38% critics), which again showed critical rejection that audiences didn’t fully share. The New Mutants (2020) similarly struggled with critics at 36% despite pulling 71% from audiences, suggesting a misalignment between what critics valued in these projects and what casual moviegoers enjoyed. Her breakthrough came with The Witch in 2015, which earned 91% critical approval and proved she could anchor a film that satisfied serious cinephiles. Split (2016) at 79% critics and 80% audience, plus Thoroughbreds (2017) at 87%, solidified her as more than a young actor in failed projects.
These mid-2010s successes established a new baseline for her career, demonstrating that with the right material and director, she could consistently earn critical respect. The turning point accelerated around 2020-2024. Emma (2020) achieved something rare—100% audience approval alongside 88% critical backing. The Menu (2022) hit 88% critics and 76% audience. Last Night in Soho (2021) landed at 75%, a respectable if not stellar score. Most notably, her recent work on major franchises—The Northman at 90%, Furiosa: A mad max Saga at 90%, and Dune: Part Two at 97%—shows her repositioned as a supporting player in prestige action films rather than a lead in smaller projects. This represents a strategic maturation in her career choices.
What Are Anya Taylor-Joy’s Highest-Rated Films and Why Do They Matter?
Dune: Part Two stands as Taylor-Joy’s critical peak at 97% with critics and 95% with audiences, marking the first time her scores have aligned so closely at such high levels. This isn’t merely a vanity metric—it signals that the film worked for both gatekeepers and general audiences. However, the Dune film represents a different type of role for Taylor-Joy. She plays Chani, a supporting character in an ensemble cast anchored by Timothée Chalamet. This suggests her best critical work may come when she’s part of larger narratives rather than carrying entire films on her shoulders. The Witch (2015) remains her most impressive individual performance by critical standards—91% critics, though notably only 61% with audiences.
This gap is instructive. Director Robert Eggers’ slow-burn horror favored critics who appreciated its atmospheric craft and ambition but left casual horror fans divided. Taylor-Joy’s unsettling performance as Thomasin became a critical talking point precisely because it challenged conventional genre expectations. This represents her early work with art-house sensibilities that earned her serious critical credibility. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) at 90% critics and 96% audience is notable for its rare unity—critics and audiences both loved it. What’s important here is that Taylor-Joy takes on another ensemble role in an action-heavy franchise film where the spectacle and director (George Miller) are the central attractions. Her Certified Fresh status on three of her films (The Witch, Furiosa, and Dune: Part Two) means that even casual critics watching these films would likely recommend them, which is the highest rung of critical consensus.
Why Does the Gap Between Critics and Audience Scores Matter?
Emma (2020) achieved a perfect 100% audience score paired with 88% critical approval, the closest alignment Taylor-Joy has achieved at these heights. This suggests the film worked as both a sophisticated adaptation and an entertaining period drama. The gap was minimal because the film satisfied both the critics who appreciated its fidelity to Jane Austen’s text and audiences who simply wanted a well-made, charming costume piece. This is the ideal outcome for any film, yet it remains rare in Taylor-Joy’s filmography. The New Mutants demonstrates the opposite pattern—critics at 36% versus audiences at 71%. This 35-point gap indicates a film that audiences found far more entertaining than critics deemed it worthy.
Often, this happens when critics object to elements (plot coherence, character development, thematic depth) that casual audiences overlook in favor of spectacle, action, or nostalgia. The film was also notoriously troubled during production, with reshoots and delays, which likely affected critical perception even if audiences didn’t factor that context into their viewing experience. The Northman shows 90% critics but only 64% audience, another significant gap indicating a film critics hailed for its craft and ambition but audiences found challenging or uneven. Robert Eggers’ Viking epic with its archaic dialogue and deliberate pacing earned critical respect precisely because it didn’t conform to mainstream narrative expectations. This pattern suggests that when Taylor-Joy stars in projects by celebrated auteurs (Eggers twice, Denis Villeneuve), critics rate them highly even if general audiences find them demanding. The limitation here is that critical approval doesn’t always translate to box office success or lasting cultural impact.
What Do Rotten Tomatoes Scores Actually Tell Us About Film Quality?
Rotten Tomatoes reduces nuanced critical opinions into a binary—fresh or rotten—based on whether a reviewer rates a film positively or negatively. This methodology rewards consensus over consensus quality. A film with 50 critics split 26-24 earns 52% just as a film with 50 critics split 50-0 would earn 100%, despite vastly different levels of critical agreement. For Taylor-Joy’s films, this matters particularly with Glass (2019) at 38% critics but 57% audience. Critics largely dismissed M. Night Shyamalan’s superhero thriller, but the audience score suggests that fans of the franchise and the genre found more to appreciate. The audience score itself presents problems.
It’s self-selected—only people motivated to rate films on Rotten Tomatoes participate, skewing toward both passionate fans and detractors. Emma’s perfect 100% audience score is impressive but potentially reflects the subset of people interested in period dramas who actually voted. Casual viewers who saw the film and forgot about it never registered their moderate approval. This means audience scores, like critical scores, can be distorted by participation bias. Taylor-Joy’s average critical score of 70% across 18 films presents another interpretive challenge. This aggregate number obscures the fact that her career wasn’t consistently at that level—it was shaped by early failures and recent successes. Averaging fails to account for growth or trajectory, making a career average less meaningful than understanding which periods of her work succeeded and which didn’t. The seven Certified Fresh films (indicating strong critical consensus) matter differently than the four films below 40%, even if they mathematically average to 70%.
How Has Taylor-Joy’s Critical Reception Evolved Over Time?
Taylor-Joy’s early career was genuinely concerning from a critical standpoint. Between 2014 and 2016, three of her first five theatrical films earned under 40% critical scores. Vampire Academy (18%), Morgan (38%), and Glass (2019, 38%) represented the kind of career-threatening pattern where an actor could become typecast as “the talent in bad movies.” Any performance by Taylor-Joy in these films was inevitably filtered through the critical dismissal of the projects themselves. Her work in Vampire Academy, for instance, has been largely forgotten not because of poor acting but because the entire film was dismissed as a failure. The critical turning point came with The Witch, which reframed Taylor-Joy as an artist capable of inhabiting complex, challenging material.
Her willingness to appear unsettling and unsympathetic—avoiding the conventional “likable female lead” template—proved appealing to critics who valued ambition over conventional charm. This established a new trajectory where her subsequent choices (Thoroughbreds, The Menu, Emma) demonstrated artistic judgment that earned critical consideration even in films that didn’t universally succeed. Her recent decade (2022-2024) has been virtually free of critical failures. The Northman at 90%, The Menu at 88%, Furiosa at 90%, and Dune: Part Two at 97% represent a sustained period of critical approval unmatched earlier in her career. This shift correlates with her transition toward ensemble films and supporting roles rather than leads in smaller projects. The warning here is that critical approval doesn’t necessarily indicate artistic fulfillment or challenging roles—supporting player work in studio franchises is more likely to earn conventional critical approval than lead work in ambitious smaller films.
Understanding Taylor-Joy’s Mid-Range Films
Taylor-Joy’s mid-range tier—films scoring between 75% and 88%—includes Emma at 88% with both critics and audiences, The Menu at 88% critics and 76% audience, Thoroughbreds at 87%, and Last Night in Soho at 75%. These films represent the most interesting part of her filmography because they actually achieved what high scores promise—films that worked for both critical and commercial purposes. Emma in particular demonstrates her ability to carry a major studio film in a lead role while maintaining high critical approval, a feat she hasn’t replicated elsewhere.
Last Night in Soho at 75% is worth examining. Directed by Edgar Wright, the film landed firmly in the “good but not great” territory for critics while audiences gave it broader approval. The gap suggests a film with strong stylistic elements and entertainment value that critics found somewhat superficial. This represents the type of middling score that’s often more useful than extremes—it tells you the film is competent, engaging, and worth watching, but not essential or especially innovative.
Examining the Critical and Audience Disconnects in Glass and The New Mutants
Glass (2019) earned 38% from critics but 57% from audiences, a 19-point gap favoring viewers over critics. M. Night Shyamalan’s superhero thriller was dismissed by most critics as a disappointing conclusion to a trilogy, yet audiences who invested in Unbreakable and Split found more satisfaction in seeing the narrative complete itself. This split reflects a genuine critical disagreement—Shyamalan is polarizing, and critics have generally soured on his work since his early career, while audiences remain more forgiving of his genre exercises.
The New Mutants shows an even larger 35-point gap with its 36% critical score against 71% audience approval. This represents one of the most substantial critic-audience disagreements of Taylor-Joy’s career. The film had documented production troubles and was shelved for extended periods, factors that likely influenced critical perception. Yet audiences who simply watched a mutant-focused superhero film found sufficient entertainment value. Both scores matter, but differently—the critical dismissal suggests the film failed on conventional filmmaking measures, while the audience score indicates that spectacle and character dynamics carried appeal regardless.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s highest Rotten Tomatoes score?
Dune: Part Two (2024) at 97% with critics and 95% with audiences. The film marked her highest-rated critical performance, though she played a supporting role rather than carrying the film.
Which Anya Taylor-Joy film has the biggest gap between critics and audiences?
The New Mutants (2020) has a 35-point gap, with critics at 36% and audiences at 71%. This suggests critics found structural issues that audiences overlooked in favor of entertainment value.
Does Emma have the perfect Rotten Tomatoes audience score?
Yes, Emma (2020) achieved 100% audience approval paired with 88% critical acclaim, making it her most universally appreciated film by both metrics.
How many of Anya Taylor-Joy’s films are Certified Fresh?
Seven of her films have earned Certified Fresh status, indicating strong critical consensus. These include The Witch, Split, Furiosa, The Northman, and others.
What was her lowest-rated film?
Vampire Academy (2014) earned only 18% from critics, though audiences gave it 56%. It remains her most critically rejected theatrical release.
Is there a pattern to when critics and audiences agree on Taylor-Joy films?
Critical-audience alignment tends to happen when the film is simply well-made and entertaining, as with Emma. Large gaps typically occur with franchise films, genre pieces, or directorial passion projects.
