Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
No Result
View All Result
Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
Home Movie

Company Paid Critics For Rotten Tomatoes Reviews

rmtsa by rmtsa
September 6, 2023
in Movie
0
Company Paid Critics For Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

Connections Help, Hints & Clues for Today, October 4

How ‘One Battle After Another’ Brought Leonardo DiCaprio to TikTok

GOOD BOY is a Really Cool Concept For a Horror Film That Just Doesn’t Quite Land — GeekTyrant

If you use Rotten Tomatoes to decide whether to see a movie —and especially if you use it primarily by glancing at films’ ratings without digging deeper into what the individual reviews that make up that rating say — there is a new article out that you definitely should read.

Called “The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes,” it details how studios and publicists have essentially gamed Rotten Tomatoes’ system to ensure that their movies get the best possible scores. In one striking example described in the piece, a publicity firm tried to boost the score of an independent film without a distributor (2018’s Ophelia, starring Daisy Ridley) by recruiting “obscure, often self-published critics who are nevertheless part of the pool tracked by Rotten Tomatoes.” Several anonymous critics told journalist Lane Brown the company in question “pays them $50 or more for each review.” (Read the full article at Vulture.)

The piece does make it clear that these critics were told they were “free to write what ever they liked but that ‘super nice ones’ … often agreed not to publish bad reviews on their usual websites but to instead quarantine them on ‘a smaller blog that [Rotten Tomatoes never sees.’” Whether this tactic was effective or not, Ophelia’s Rotten Tomatoes score did eventually flip from a “Rotten” 46 percent to a barely “Fresh” 62 percent. The movie was ultimately acquired for distribution, and released in the United States.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA
Marvel

READ MORE: Famous Movies With a 0 Score on Rotten Tomatoes

That might be the most eyebrow-raising example in Vulture’s article, but the whole thing is full of other ways, some sketchier than others, that film companies seek to goose their Rotten Tomatoes ratings however they can. The main way they do it: By controlling which critics see which movies and when, in order to ensure that a movie’s score is as high as possible for as long as possible, especially around the time when a blockbuster’s pre-sale is about to launch.

For example, the piece notes that the first batch of reviews for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that came out of its earliest reviews from critics gave it a Rotten Tomatoes score of 79 percent — just as tickets for the Marvel film were going on sale. By the time the movie opened in theaters, and more critics had seen it, that rating had dropped to 46 percent. After a very strong opening weekend, Quantumania had a precipitous drop at the box office.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA
Marvel

I can’t recall ever being offered money to review a film on Rotten Tomatoes, and obviously if I had, I would have said no. But I’ve certainly received many emails from publicists through the years trying to get me (and no doubt many other critics) to write positive things about their client’s work, and then hopefully to post those nice things on Rotten Tomatoes. That is a publicist’s job — to publicize their movies and to try to get the most positive coverage for their clients possible.

So I think the ultimate takeaway from Vulture’s piece should be less about one company that was allegedly doing some shady stuff, and more a reminder that Rotten Tomatoes scores do not exist in a vacuum, and that users of the site should never take those scores as simple objective truth.

I always encourage people to actually, y’know, read reviews, not just because they should know who they are trusting to tell them if a film is good or bad, but because reading good criticism expands the experience of going to the movies and enhances our appreciation of cinema. Rotten Tomatoes can still be a useful place to find many reviews in one place. But a contextless number from quasi-anonymous sources can never replace the work of a good, knowledgeable critic whose work you trust and enjoy.

Movies That Critics Loved But Audiences Didn’t

These movies all got high marks from critics, but general audiences were less than enthusiastic.



Source link

Tags: CompanyCriticsPaidreviewsRottenTomatoes
Share30Tweet19
rmtsa

rmtsa

Recommended For You

Connections Help, Hints & Clues for Today, October 4

by rmtsa
October 4, 2025
0
Connections Help, Hints & Clues for Today, October 4

Having trouble with the October 4 edition of NYT Connections? We’ve got the clues and hints to help you clear the puzzle and save your daily winning streak....

Read more

How ‘One Battle After Another’ Brought Leonardo DiCaprio to TikTok

by rmtsa
October 4, 2025
0
How ‘One Battle After Another’ Brought Leonardo DiCaprio to TikTok

In Richard Lawson’s review of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another for The Hollywood Reporter, the veteran critic described it as a “bracingly timely wonder.” The same...

Read more

GOOD BOY is a Really Cool Concept For a Horror Film That Just Doesn’t Quite Land — GeekTyrant

by rmtsa
October 4, 2025
0
GOOD BOY is a Really Cool Concept For a Horror Film That Just Doesn’t Quite Land — GeekTyrant

I’ve been excited about checking out Good Boy ever since I first heard about it. A horror movie told entirely from the perspective of a dog? That’s such...

Read more

Famous Horror Movies That Got Bad Reviews

by rmtsa
October 4, 2025
0
Famous Horror Movies That Got Bad Reviews

Every year around Halloween, horror movie lovers look for films to satisfy their seasonal craving for scares. It’s fun to revisit a favorite like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Psycho, but a horror...

Read more

The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’ Review

by rmtsa
October 4, 2025
0
The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’ Review

There is a line that tends to get trotted out whenever some big-budget, high-profile piece of IP flops hard. “I made this for the fans, not the critics,”...

Read more
Next Post
Jill Duggar Says Her Reality Shows Nearly Tore Marriage Apart (Exclusive)

Jill Duggar Says Her Reality Shows Nearly Tore Marriage Apart (Exclusive)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized

CATEGORIES

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
No Result
View All Result

Recent News

  • Connections Help, Hints & Clues for Today, October 4
  • Cassie’s Camp Responds To Diddy’s Sentencing
  • ‘Ballard’ Renewed for Season 2 at Prime Video

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In