On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 194 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Death of Stalin finds director/co-writer Arnando Iannucci in riotous form, bringing his scabrous political humor to bear on a chapter in history with painfully timely parallels."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]