Rotten Tomatoes as critic aggregator, score influences, studio tampering 1 1

[drotto]

14 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

It's a fair point, as Disney Marking and MCU fans are going to take action along with these people that have a problem with Disney (they did the same thing with The Last Jedi and Infinity War) working to make Captain Marvel fail.

You hope in the end the actions from both sides flush out evenly.

The other reason I highly suspect bombing on both sides is the rating curve should be more or less a bell curve.  On IMDb it is currently almost an inverted bell curve, when you look at the score breakdown. There are an unrealistic number of 10's as well as 1's.  

If you take the 10's and 1's away (the likely bombing reviews) you see a more typical review curve appear, and the average then looks like a 6 to 7 ( just eyeballing it).

Edited March 7, 2019 by drotto

[Bosco685]

Interesting visual summary of the entire Rotten Tomatoes score attack, including how RT pretended this was just a system glitch.

 

[Bosco685]

I know folks on here have talked about WB owning a large stake in RT. But I guess that changed when Comcast purchased the majority stake in 2016.

Fandango acquires review site Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster

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Fandango, which is owned by NBCUniversal (Comcast), did not disclose the price of acquiring the two sites from Warner Bros. Entertainment. As part of the deal Warner Bros. Entertainment, which like CNN is owned by Time Warner (TWX), will take a minority ownership stake in Fandango.

The executive is Fandango president Paul Yanover.

PAUL YANOVER, President, Fandango

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Before being named to his post at Fandango, Yanover served as EVP and Managing Director of Disney Online, where he oversaw all Disney-branded initiatives on the Internet and mobile web, from Disney.com to Disney's suite of premium digital products including online games, virtual worlds, network of family targeted sites, and streaming service Disney Movies Online. Yanover began his career with Disney at Walt Disney Feature Animation, ultimately becoming VP of Technology and digital production for the division, and also served as SVP of Disney Parks & Resorts Online, overseeing the ecommerce business across Disney’s resorts and theme parks.

I had never heard that before.

[Bosco685]

ROTTEN TOMATOES CONSIDERS STRICTER VERIFICATION RULES FOR AUDIENCE REVIEWS

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Per a report from THR, the site is considering an additional measure that would make it so potential users would have to answer a question about whether or not they’ve actually seen the movie before being able to post. This comes on the heels of an instant wave of negative, spiteful reactions to CAPTAIN MARVEL as soon as comments/reviews were allowed, leading to the audience score to plummet to as low as 25 percent. Similar actions were taken by angry trolls on movies like BLACK PANTHER and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, actions which, shockingly, had no effect given those movies' massive box office intakes. Likewise, MARVEL opened to over $150 million opening weekend and has rocketed past $500 million worldwide, with $1 billion in reach.

 

Adding this additional security measure may not be all that helpful in addressing the problem of these intense negative review attacks (people could just lie and said they saw it), but it's still admirable they're trying to do something to add some credibility to the rating system. Given that this is the internet and anyone can say anything they want about anything that may be a fruitless fight, and to Colligan's point, audiences don't seem to pay trolls any mind. They will see what they want to see no matter what, and some unreasonably angry people aren't going to deter them.

That will DEFINITELY resolve this situation. 

[Bosco685]

Someone's not a fan.

 

[Bosco685]

Quote

Rotten Tomatoes is dramatically changing its Audience Score methodology for movies: The site will now display aggregate ratings that include only users who can prove they’ve bought a ticket to see it in a theater. It’s another troll-fighting move by Rotten Tomatoes, designed to curb coordinated “review bombs” aimed at pushing down the Audience Score for films certain bad actors dislike.

 

But it’s also a way for Fandango, which owns Rotten Tomatoes, to sell more tickets — initially, the only way users can have their ratings count toward the Audience Score will be through a Fandango purchase. Fandango insists that selling tickets is not the primary driver of the Audience Score change, noting that it has deals with AMC Theatres, Regal and Cinemark Theatres to participate in the program to let their customer verify their ticket purchases on Rotten Tomatoes sometime later this year.

 

Asked if the change to Rotten Tomatoes’ Audience Score system was really about selling more tickets through Fandango, chief marketing officer Lori Pantel, responded, “Absolutely not. We’re open to any partner that wants to come on board.” She said decision for the change came out of research the company conducted over the last year showing that Rotten Tomatoes users “want more transparency.”

 

As for why Fandango is making the change to Rotten Tomatoes movie Audience Scores now — instead of waiting until more exhibitor partners besides are integrated — Pantel said, “It’s about scale and expediency as we kick off the summer season of movies.”

 

Movies opening Friday, May 23, that are subject to the new Audience Rating system include Disney’s “Aladdin,” “Booksmart” and “Brightburn.” All new releases going forward will be subject to the same requirement, although Fandango execs said viewer scores displayed for previous movies won’t change.

 

[theCapraAegagrus]

Just now, Bosco685 said:

 

I get it, but, people (including myself) get ticked off when they have to verify their identity, etc, to sites.

I don't contribute to RT, but this would just seal the deal for me to never use it. I'm passionate about movies, and mainly comic/nostalgia movies, but not enough to go through that BS for every movie I see. I often throw my tickets away after I see the movie.

[Bosco685]

1 hour ago, TwoPiece said:

I get it, but, people (including myself) get ticked off when they have to verify their identity, etc, to sites.

I don't contribute to RT, but this would just seal the deal for me to never use it. I'm passionate about movies, and mainly comic/nostalgia movies, but not enough to go through that BS for every movie I see. I often throw my tickets away after I see the movie.

I think their hands were forced when it became clear how easily its system could be manipulated not only by studios but also consumers.

It's a tough spot they have themselves in. Especially when they started marketing the release of their RT Score as a big event show.

[theCapraAegagrus]

2 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

I think their hands were forced when it became clear how easily its system could be manipulated not only by studios but also consumers.

It's a tough spot they have themselves in. Especially when they started marketing the release of their RT Score as a big event show.

Doing themselves a disservice IMO by reducing site traffic.

It's not like they have a duty or anything.

Oh well. Some people will pander to their demands. I suspect it will backfire greatly. It's too bad, too, because I generally considered their Audience Scores to be inline with my own opinions. I couldn't care less about the Critical Score because they've gotten so many movies wrong (The Last Jedi).

[Bosco685]

More details about the new process. Since a former Disney senior executive runs Fandango, I wonder how much pressure he experienced from The Mouse. Especially since Fandango resells Disney tickets, digital films and TV shows.

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In recent years, racist and sexist internet trolls have swarmed the service in an attempt to impact various films' audiences scores, resulting in the service updating their review process, with the latest change being that users who purchase tickets to a film will now be considered "verified" reviewers.

 

"We know from our research that fans consult Rotten Tomatoes' Audience Score along with the Tomatometer, when making decisions on what to watch," Paul Yanover, Fandango President, shared in a statement. "Having an Audience Score and reviews from fans who are confirmed ticket purchasers, will add even more usefulness to our product and increase consumer confidence."

 

Earlier this year, sexist trolls targeted Captain Marvel and began flooding the film's audience anticipation section with hateful remarks. This tabulated an "Anticipation Score" for the film, which quickly earned it the Marvel Cinematic Universe's lowest anticipation score. Despite some of these fans saying they didn't want to see it out of good faith, the abundance of hateful remarks made it clear that there was a campaign to create a negative image of the movie.

 

When the film was finally in theaters, these hateful remarks were lumped in with the actual user reviews, making it appear as though the film was hated to an unprecedented degree. Similarly, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker also began earning these hateful comments, causing Rotten Tomatoes to scrap the feature on the site.

 

With Fandango owning Rotten Tomatoes, anyone who purchases a ticket for a film through that service will be invited to leave a "verified" review of a film they purchase tickets for, which will be identified with a badge symbol. Fans can still leave reviews and rate movies even if they didn't purchase a ticket, they just won't be considered "verified" reviews and, when visiting a movie's page, fans will only see the audience score when based on verified reviews. However, there is still the option to sort through audience ratings to see all of them, verified or not.

 

While Fandango is currently the only way to sync your ticket purchases to Rotten Tomatoes, the service claims it will incorporate other sellers in the near future.

 

[ChillMan]

A lot of people here refer to RottenTomatoes and IMDB scores as if they are facts.  They say things like "critically acclaimed" or "audiences loved it"....as if RT and IMDB scores are real facts.  They are not.  Yes the scores should be reported, but they are not real facts.

Critics rate based on political/social issues....NOT on if a movie is good or not.  It's common-sense.  Everything else in the news is political; there's no such thing as straight reporting.  You can tell by which movies get good reviews and which get bad reviews.  You can tell by the wording of their reviews.  They're very sneaky about it, but it's still obvious.  For instance, to downgrade a good movie....they flat-out lie, they focus on irrelevant things, and they use terms like "uneven pacing".  So obvious.

IMDB is Fake News too.  Why wouldn't it be?  They're no different.  They flat-out say their scoring-system is secret and not simply incoming numbers; they admit they manipulate.  They can do whatever they want.  They eliminated their Message Board, because they don't want differing/real opinions.

[RedRaven]

I miss Roger Ebert.

[Bosco685]

Once again the flaws with the Rotten Tomatoes rating system outside of it just being a critic aggregator.

The same critic that has a pattern of 3.0/5 with films picks and chooses when a 3.0 is a rotten versus a fresh. Though oddly I see a pattern. 

[Bosco685]

Interesting enough, someone asked the critic why his 3.0/5 for Joker was listed a Rotten when that is actually a pretty decent score.

He is now blaming Rotten Tomatoes.

[kav]

I look to see a high audience, low reviewer score to determine if a movie is good or not.  This is the best index I've found.  High reviewer, low audience are the worst movies.  High reviewer, high audience can go either way.  High audience, low reviewer are almost always good.

[Bosco685]

Not to blame Rotten Tomatoes for such Hollywood behavior. But it sure demonstrates how anyone using that site to gauge should they see a film or not is missing the boat on reality.

 

[theCapraAegagrus]

36 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

Not to blame Rotten Tomatoes for such Hollywood behavior. But it sure demonstrates how anyone using that site to gauge should they see a film or not is missing the boat on reality.

 

99% "Fresh" Audience Score:

"There are no featured audience reviews for Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones at this time."

[Bosco685]

14 minutes ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

99% "Fresh" Audience Score:

"There are no featured audience reviews for Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones at this time."

BOOM!

[zhamlau]

4 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

BOOM!

I love the critics consensus. Man, talk about desperate to influence people to not want to watch it.

[theCapraAegagrus]

I have seen a couple of bits on FB. They were okay. Not as hilarious as his CC show was, but in no way unfunny.