Eddie Murphy Tops 97% With Dolemite Is My Name
Eddie Murphy is back at the top of his own filmography. Dolemite Is My Name, the 2019 Netflix original biopic, is listed by Rotten Tomatoes as his highest-rated movie, with a 97 percent critics score and a 91 percent audience score.
That is a sharp turn for an actor who had been a staple on the silver screen for four decades, then faded from movies through the 2010s. The film’s numbers put Murphy’s comeback on firmer ground than any nostalgia campaign could manage on its own.
Rotten Tomatoes Puts Murphy First
The 97 percent critics score is the cleanest marker here. Rotten Tomatoes also includes the quote, “Eddie Murphy makes Dolemite Is My Name just as bold, brash, and ultimately hard to resist as its subject,” which is the kind of consensus language studios want around a prestige title built for critical credibility rather than scale.
The 91 percent audience score keeps the film from looking like a critics-only outlier. For a Netflix original, that combination matters because it suggests the movie traveled beyond review pages and held up with viewers who are often less forgiving of self-conscious comeback vehicles.
IMDb and EW Keep It High
IMDb places Dolemite Is My Name at No. 3 with a 7.2 score, and Entertainment Weekly ranks it No. 5 on its list of the 30 best Netflix original movies. Those placements do not match Rotten Tomatoes exactly, but they all move in the same direction: Murphy’s 2019 return is not being treated as a one-off success.
Scott Alexander said the script was written around Murphy from the start: “When we were writing this script, we broke the cardinal rule, which is never write for a star. We said, ‘This script is only for Eddie,’” he said. He added, “We want Eddie to love it. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. If Eddie loves it, we get to make a movie. If Eddie doesn’t love it, then there is no movie.”
Rudy Ray Moore and the comeback
Murphy stars as Rudy Ray Moore, the eccentric comedian who plays the larger-than-life character named Dolemite. That casting gave the movie a built-in performance hook, but the rankings now show the real outcome: the film has become the benchmark title for Murphy on Netflix and across several lists.
For readers tracking Murphy’s career rather than just one movie, the takeaway is simple. Norbit in 2007 sits in the background of a longer slump, while Dolemite Is My Name has become the title that restored his critical standing, with May 9, 2026 marking the story’s original publication date.
