Allegations of tampering with Rotten Tomatoes site scores
The Vulture magazine has written in a revealing article that a certain advertising company was able to manipulate the Rotten Tomatoes rating of movies by paying them.
Charso Press: For serious movie buffs, one of the best signs of critics’ interest in a movie is to use the Rotten Tomatoes website score. This website collects all the reviews of famous critics of the major media about a movie and gives them a score and puts the public votes along with it. Given that imdb ratings can be manipulated by fans of a particular actor or film, many consider the Rotten Tomatoes score a key factor in understanding a film’s success, especially among critics.
But now the Vulture magazine has addressed the issue in a revealing article that a special advertising company was able to manipulate the Rotten Tomatoes rating of movie works by paying money. In this article, Vulcher mentioned a movie called “Ophelia” starring Daisy Ridley in 2018, which received a low score of 45% and was labeled “corrupt”, but this advertising company called “Bunker 15” paid money to critics who are members of Rotten Tomatoes has added eight positive reviews and in cooperation with the editors of Rotten Tomatoes, they either did not enter negative reviews on the site or made it look positive. As a result of these efforts, Ofila was able to reach a score of 62% and received the new seal after passing sixty percent. A month after receiving this seal, IFC Company bought the right to broadcast Ophelia for America!
The makers of the film, the manager of this advertising company and the Rotten Tomatoes website have denied this story. But Paul Schrader talked to the writer in this article and said: “The Rotten Tomatoes system is completely flawed.” The audience is also stupider. “The average person doesn’t read reviews like they used to, and that’s why Rotten Tomatoes has become something that studios can manipulate.”
Quentin Tarantino recently criticized the new generation of critics in an interview and said: “I don’t know anyone anymore! For example, they say Manola Darglis (New York Times critic) is a good critic. But when I ask what are the three most loved and hated movies in recent years. No one answers me, because it doesn’t seem to matter at all!”
Martin Scorsese had previously called this site a disaster for cinema and said: “This method of collecting criticism reduces the filmmaker to the level of a content producer and makes the audience an uninterested customer who only comes to watch.” Previously, it was announced in statistics that one third of moviegoers check the Rotten Tomatoes rating before watching a movie.