A24’s latest release is arriving with the kind of critical momentum that can make a film feel bigger before audiences have even bought a ticket. Primetime has already spent weeks generating conversation around Robert Pattinson’s transformation into Chris Hansen, and its Venice debut has only intensified that attention.

With release day approaching, the Tomatometer is giving that conversation another number to obsess over. With its critical credentials already doing plenty of the heavy lifting for Lance Oppenheim’s unsettling new drama, critics are buzzing before its drop. 

One day before its September 25 theatrical release, Primetime has reached a 89% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, putting Robert Pattinson’s latest film firmly among the year’s most critically acclaimed releases. The score comes from 98 reviews, with critics largely circling the film’s audacious style and Pattinson’s central performance.

Directed by Lance Oppenheim in his narrative-feature debut, Primetime fictionalizes the story of Chris Hansen and his controversial To Catch a Predator television program. Pattinson plays Hansen during the period when the show became a ratings phenomenon, with the film examining the machinery of television, fame, and the appetite for watching real-world wrongdoing turned into entertainment. 

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The 89% is impressive on its own, but Pattinson’s wider Rotten Tomatoes history makes the number considerably more interesting.

Robert Pattinson’s 96% Tomatometer score for The Boy and the Heron remains the highest-rated film associated with his Rotten Tomatoes filmography. The amusing catch is that he does not appear onscreen: Pattinson provides the voice of the Gray Heron in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film. 

His next highest-rated credits include The Odyssey at 94%, Good Time at 91%, and The Lighthouse at 90%. Primetime’s 89%, yet to face the regular theatregoers, sits comfortably at its pre-release spot. 

That trajectory also reflects how dramatically Pattinson’s post-Twilight career has shifted. From Cosmopolis and The Rover to Good Time, The Lighthouse and The Batman, his filmography has increasingly moved between strange independent projects and enormous studio productions. Primetime simply happens to be arriving with the numbers already on its side, giving him another remarkable Rotten Tomatoes milestone—and this time, he is very much at the center of it.

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What do you think of Primetime's Rotten Tomato victory so far? Let us know in the comments.