Moviefone Editorial

Tag: rotten-tomatoes

  • Rotten Tomatoes Changes Rating System to Combat Trolls

    Rotten Tomatoes Changes Rating System to Combat Trolls

    Brie Larson in Captain Marvel
    Marvel

    Rotten Tomatoes is changing parts of its rating system in an effort to combat online trolls.

    In order to “modernize its audience rating system through a series of product enhancements,” the site said it will now ban the user reviews and comments prior to a movie’s theatrical release.

    The latest victim of this mass targeting was “Captain Marvel,” which opens in theaters March 8.

    Negative pre-release buzz on Rotten Tomatoes has been a problem for quite a few movies over the years, notably the all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters” and last year’s biggest hit (and Oscar nominee) “Black Panther.”

    “Captain Marvel” was experiencing the same thing, with its Audience Score falling to 40 percent  despite the fact that almost nobody (aside from select critics and industry members) have seen it.

    In an editorial, the site explained, “We are disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date. Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership.”

    Read the full list of changes at Rotten Tomatoes here.

  • Rotten Tomatoes Is Changing its Rules to Increase Critic Diversity

    Rotten Tomatoes Is Changing its Rules to Increase Critic Diversity

    Rotten Tomatoes

    In an effort to offer a more inclusive ratings experience and diversify its base of critics, Rotten Tomatoes has changed its verification process. And the results are already quite striking.

    The site — home of the buzzy Tomatometer — announced on Tuesday that it will now focus on an individual critic’s qualifications and body of work, instead of simply the outlet for which they share reviews. That latter component has also been tweaked to allow for a wider scope of media; instead of just print publications and broadcast networks, outlets such as digital video series and podcasts will also be considered (as will other media, on a case-by-case basis).

    According to Jenny Jediny, the critics relations manager for Rotten Tomatoes who was instrumental in implementing these new changes, the site has “already identified more diverse voices.” According to reports, more than 200 new critics have already been verified, and their ranks are 70 percent female, versus the 60 percent male pool of the approximately 4,400 existing critics.

    Lest you think that this means that the Tomatometer itself is changing, fear not: Rotten Tomatoes says it’s not altering the way reviews are scored. And the existing critics will not be affected by these new rules, either.

    This seems like a win for everyone — but most importantly, moviegoers, who will now have a larger sea of critics and perspectives to navigate. Perhaps these updates will inspire Martin Scorsese to change his tune about the aggregator, or dethrone current ratings champ “Lady Bird.” Stay tuned.

    For more information about the new criteria, visit Rotten Tomatoes.

    [via: The Hollywood Reporter]

  • Rotten Tomatoes Stands By ‘Gotti’ Audience Score Amid Skepticism

    The new John Travolta movie “Gotti” has a rare 0 percent rating from 28 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. However, that’s in stark contrast to the current Audience Score of 64 percent.

    But some fans are questioning the validity of the Audience Score. For one, it’s based on more than 7,000 user ratings. That’s a lot for a movie that opened to $1.7 million from just 503 theaters. As several people have pointed out, “Incredibles 2” only has a few more RT user ratings, and it opened in 4,410 theaters and made more than $180 million in its opening weekend. In comparison, IMDb users gave “Gotti” a rating of 4.8/10, based on (as of this moment) 987 reviews.

    So where did all of those RT user reviews come from?

    “Gotti” turned the fan vs. critic disparity into a marketing tool:

    MoviePass was one of the financiers of “Gotti,” and became involved in the debate on the RT user ratings. (Full disclosure: MoviePass recently bought Moviefone.)

    When one fan examined the “Gotti” RT user reviews, here’s what they claim they found:

    “[O]f the first 58 reviewers with an available profile, 45 had created their account on June 2018;

    Out of these 45, 32 have only reviewed Gotti, 10 reviewed Gotti and another movie (7 times it was American Animals [another film owned by MoviePass]) and 3 had more than 3 reviews.

    Of the remaining 13 accounts 8 looked normal and 5 had created their account in December (TLJ?) so those were probably legit.”

    Gizmodo asked Rotten Tomatoes if any unusual activity was noticed in the “Gotti” user ratings. Here’s the spokesperson’s response:

    “We closely monitor our platforms and haven’t determined there to be any problems. All of the reviews were left by active accounts.”

    Gizmodo also asked MoviePass for comment on the rumors it was involved in spiking the user ratings; here’s the response:

    “The MoviePass marketing team is only engaged in sending promotional emails and push notifications to our users. We have no further involvement from a marketing perspective and have no insight or information about who is providing the audience reviews to Rotten Tomatoes.”

    It could be that John Travolta and his friends are doing their own marketing push. Could be a reaction to Rotten Tomatoes itself, from critics of the critics, who like to support things that get trashed on RT.

    “Gotti” would not be the first film to face a massive divide between critics and fans. Netflix’s “Bright” was blasted by critics but embraced by fans. And right now “Hereditary” has a 90 percent fresh rating on the Tomatometer with an Audience Score of only 56 percent. Actresses like Reese Witherspoon and Brie Larson have called for more diversity in film critics, to better reflect the movie-going public, because reviews can often make or break a project.

    On Metacritic, “Gotti” has a Metascore of 24, with a User Score of 4.4. That’s from 7 positive and 8 negative reviews. No one is “Mixed.”

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  • Rotten Tomatoes Responds to Brett Ratner’s Slam That It’s ‘the Worst Thing’ for Movies

    Does a rotten or fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes affect whether you see a movie or not? The $873 million worldwide gross for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” would suggest fans don’t really care — they’ll see what THEY want to see, critics be damned. But producer/director Brett Ratner, who helped finance “BvS,” lashed out at the Tomatometer aggregate score as “the destruction of our business.”

    Here’s part of Ratner’s speech at the Sun Valley Film Festival (via Entertainment Weekly):

    “The worst thing that we have in today’s movie culture is Rotten Tomatoes. I think it’s the destruction of our business. I have such respect and admiration for film criticism. When I was growing up film criticism was a real art. And there was intellect that went into that. And you would read Pauline’s Kael’s reviews, or some others, and that doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s about a number. A compounded number of how many positives vs. negatives. Now it’s about, ‘What’s your Rotten Tomatoes score?’ And that’s sad, because the Rotten Tomatoes score was so low on ‘Batman v Superman’ I think it put a cloud over a movie that was incredibly successful.”

    But isn’t that contradictory? How could it put a cloud over the movie if it was incredibly successful, despite having just a 27 percent rating on RT? It suggests fans saw the movie anyway.

    Ratner, who is not exactly objective on the subject of BvS since his company had a financial investment in it, continued:

    “People don’t realize what goes into making a movie like that. It’s mind-blowing. It’s just insane, it’s hurting the business, it’s getting people to not see a movie. In Middle America it’s, ‘Oh, it’s a low Rotten Tomatoes score so I’m not going to go see it because it must suck.’ But that number is an aggregate and one that nobody can figure out exactly what it means, and it’s not always correct. I’ve seen some great movies with really abysmal Rotten Tomatoes scores. What’s sad is film criticism has disappeared. It’s really sad.”

    What’s sad is anyone speaking for Middle America, especially when plenty of people did see “BvS” and other movies/shows that have gotten low scores — including “Iron Fist,” which many viewers defended from critical attacks. Sometimes low ratings just leave fans with low expectations, leaving them pleasantly surprised. And there are plenty of movies out there with high Rotten Tomatoes scores that fans didn’t bother to see. Don’t act like viewers are just sheep who buy tickets to whatever the critics tell them to see.

    EW asked Rotten Tomatoes for a response to the “Rush Hour” director’s comments, and Jeff Voris gave them a statement:

    “At Rotten Tomatoes, we completely agree that film criticism is valuable and important, and we’re making it easier than it has ever been for fans to access potentially hundreds of professional reviews for a given film or TV show in one place. The Tomatometer score, which is the percentage of positive reviews published by professional critics, has become a useful decision-making tool for fans, but we believe it’s just a starting point for them to begin discussing, debating and sharing their own opinions.”

    It’s not like there’s just one guy out there raising or lowering his thumb, it’s a collection of reviews. And fans do know that. If “BvS” had been better liked (and a better movie in general) you probably wouldn’t hear Ratner complaining at all.

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  • David Ayer Defends ‘Suicide Squad,’ Angry DC Fans Protest Bad Reviews

    Celebrities On The Set Of Univision's "Despierta America"Ouch. “Suicide Squad” director David Ayer may regret saying “F–k Marvel” but he’d probably double-down on a chorus of “F–k the critics.”

    DC and Warner Bros. had rough treatment from critics with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” but the trailers for “Suicide Squad” looked great, and the film seemed poised to be a hit with both fans and reviewers. Well, there’s still hope for the fans — and definitely for a blockbuster run at the box office — but the early reviews have been bad. Really bad. As of Wednesday morning, after 72 reviews, “Suicide Squad” only has a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

    This has done nothing to help heal the fandom’s DC v Marvel war, and DC fans think it’s more evidence of critics’s pro-Marvel bias. In fact, there’s even a petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes due to the bad DC reviews.

    That may be the new definition of butthurt. But it does have more than 10,600 supporters at this point. Better to petition that movie critics be made the villains of the next DC film.

    Director David Ayer, who did apologize for saying “F–k Marvel” at his film’s premiere, took to Twitter after the bad reviews started pouring in:


    That quote translates to “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” He’s standing by the film, whether anyone else is or not. And hey, “Wonder Woman” is next, and that one looks great … right?

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  • ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Opens to 97 Percent Rating on Rotten Tomatoes


    With great hype comes great responsibility, and it looks like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is living up to its end of the bargain.

    Early reviews are in for “Episode VII” — which comes out in two days — and they are very, very positive. At the moment, “Rotten Tomatoes” is trending on Twitter because fans are rocking back and forth in excitement about the movie’s current 97 percent certified fresh rating, based on 110 “fresh” reviews and three “rotten.” (Question: Do we just assume the three are trolls fishing for attention or give them the benefit of the doubt?”) That rating could and probably will change very quickly, but for now it is thrilling fanboys and fangirls to tears.


    Yes. These are the scores we’re looking for. Not only do the critics (so far) seem to think “The Force Awakens” is better than the prequels — an admittedly low bar — they seem sweet on the movie on its own.

    Here are just a few of the fresh reviews:

    • “Thrilling, exciting and dazzling with a heartbeat underneath. Star Wars: The Force Awakens delivers everything you want in a Star Wars movie. It’s worth waiting in line for, and lives up to the hype.”
    Avi Offer
    NYC Movie Guru

    • “A Star Wars film by fans and for fans.”
    Chris Bumbray
    JoBlo’s Movie Emporium

    • “Star Wars has come roaring and soaring back with a fabulous, bountiful, richly rewarding payoff for anyone who’s been waiting, patiently or otherwise.”
    Neil Pond
    Parade Magazine

    • “Harrison Ford and Peter Mayhew, playing Han Solo and Chewbacca, are flat out terrific delivering one-liners, slap-stick, and heart, which transcends mere nostalgia.”
    Jonathan W. Hickman
    Daily Film Fix

    • “What Abrams has done is find and return the ingredient crucial to the original three films in the franchise that was sorely lacking in the second round: fun.”
    Bill Goodykoontz
    Arizona Republic

    • “A triumphant return to form for the franchise – the best of the films since The Empire Strikes Back…It’s also a rousing introduction to new characters who will likely carry this world forward through two more planned episodes and assorted spinoffs.”
    Cary Darling
    Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

    And here’s one of the rotten reviews:

    • “[Abrams ] has made an adoring copy of Star Wars, seeking to correct its perceived flaws, without understanding that nothing about that movie’s context or meaning or enormous cultural impact can be duplicated.”
    Andrew O’Hehir
    Salon.com

    That guy’s lack of faith is disturbing, and he’s probably going to take some heat, but it is good to hear both sides. And, for all we know, many fans may agree with that perspective. With so much hype, there’s a lot of room for disappointment. Time will tell.

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