 Contact received mostly positive reviews from critics. On the basis of 62 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 63 % of critics enjoyed the film, with an average score of 6.8 out of 10. Metacritic calculated an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 22 reviews, denoting "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review, believing that Contact was on par with Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as Hollywood's most cinematic study of extraterrestrial life. "Movies like Contact help explain why movies like Independence Day leave me feeling empty and unsatisfied," Ebert commented. On December 21, 2011, Ebert added Contact to his Great Movies collection.
