{"id":2029443,"date":"2023-09-12T15:26:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T19:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-hollywood-website-hit-with-scandal-calling-reviews-into-doubt-report\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T15:32:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T19:32:33","slug":"top-hollywood-website-hit-with-scandal-calling-reviews-into-doubt-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-hollywood-website-hit-with-scandal-calling-reviews-into-doubt-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood website scandal casts doubt on reviews: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-hollywood-website-hit-with-scandal-calling-reviews-into-doubt-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2029443&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The \u2062Scandal Surrounding Rotten Tomatoes: Are Review Scores Legitimate?<\/h2>\n<p>The film review website\u200b Rotten\u200d Tomatoes is \u2063one of the most cited movie \u200bwebsites on \u2064the Internet today and its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/disney-relies-on-media-echo-chamber-and-cries-of-racism-to-boost-obi-wan-kenobi-series\/\" title=\"Disney Relies On Media Echo Chamber And Cries Of Racism To Boost \u2018Obi-Wan Kenobi\u2019 Series\">review scores<\/a> are\u200b often\u200c featured in \u200cadvertising to get fans \u2063to the theaters, \u200dbut some are beginning wonder if those scores are\u200c legitimate.<\/p>\n<p>If the website\u2019s \u201cTomatometer\u201d review scores are not legitimate, it \u200dcould be a scandal that will cause a\u200d crisis for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/knew-going-look-horrible-hollywood-employees-admit-todays-films-look-terrible\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movie<\/a> \u200creviews everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>A journalist took a look at the website\u2019s reviewing systems and \u200bits history and his\u2064 analysis was published\u200c at the entertainment\u2063 website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/rotten-tomatoes-movie-rating.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vulture.com<\/a> last week.\u200c His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-hollywood-website-hit-with-scandal-calling-reviews-into-doubt-report\/\" title=\"Hollywood website scandal casts doubt on reviews: Report\">discoveries raise real questions<\/a> about whether the site could be far less accurate and reliable than it has been\u200c sold.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Writer Lane Brown of New York\u200d magazine summed up the \u200dimportance and\u200d the problems of\u200d Rotten Tomatoes well, \u2064noting, \u201cThe site was conceived in the early days of the web as a Hot or Not for movies. Now, it \u200bcan make or break \u2062them \u2014 with implications for \u2063how films are perceived, \u2063released, marketed, and possibly\u2063 even green-lit. The Tomatometer may be the most important metric in entertainment, yet it\u2019s also erratic, reductive, and easily\u200b hacked.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The point about\u200c how important the site\u2019s film review \u200bscores have become is on target. Even a brief look through recent PR material for films will \u200dshow references to Tomatometer scores. \u2063Those references are used \u200bas axiomatic proclamations that a film\u200c is worth seeing.<\/p>\n<p>Citing a \u201cfresh\u201d score in film \u2064advertising\u2062 is almost de\u200c rigueur \u2062these days. But if the reviewing system is \u2064not\u200d to be trusted, as Vulture seems \u200cto hint, this will be yet another disaster for a film industry that is already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/disneys-dumpster-fire-movie-draws-lawsuit-alleged-dirty-trick-discovered-commercial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sinking\u2064 lower<\/a> every month.<\/p>\n<p>The site has a complicated history with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/hollywood-doesnt-want-know-no-1-streaming-show-writers-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hollywood<\/a> as\u2064 it is.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe studios didn\u2019t invent Rotten Tomatoes, and most of them don\u2019t like it,\u201d said filmmaker Paul Schrader, according to Vulture. \u201cBut the system is broken. Audiences are dumber. Normal \u200cpeople don\u2019t go through reviews \u200clike they used to. \u200bRotten Tomatoes is something the studios can game.\u200d So they do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Directors, stars, and studios may be iffy on Rotten Tomatoes, but their publicists and PR firms love the\u2064 thing.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cPublicists say their jobs \u200crevolve around the \u2063site,\u201d according to\u2063 Vulture.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There is another group that hates the site, too. People trying to be film reviewers for a living really\u200b detest Rotten Tomatoes\u2063 because, as Vulture noted, the site has \u201cdesensitized\u201d \u200cthe public to the work of individual reviewers.<\/p>\n<p>After all, \u200dwho \u2064needs \u200bto seek out reviewers, and read\u2062 their long takes on \u200dmovies, when you can just \u2064go \u2063to Rotten Tomatoes and in seconds see that the film is rated 89 percent \u201cfresh\u201d or is \u201crotten\u201d? No reading or research \u2063needed. Just take a quick look at a \u200bnumber and you\u2019re done.<\/p>\n<p>Director Quentin Tarantino, for instance, told a \u2062French publication that he\u2062 no longer bothers reading the work of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/studios-wait-hollywood-strike-writers-losing-apartments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">film<\/a> reviewers, according to Vulture.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cToday, I don\u2019t know anyone,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m told, \u200c\u2018Manohla Dargis, \u2062she\u2019s excellent.\u2019 But when I ask what are the three \u2062movies she loved and the \u200cthree she hated in \u200bthe \u2062last few years, no one can answer \u2062me. Because they \u2063don\u2019t care!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But Vulture also found that these same publicists who\u2064 rely on the\u200c site have also learned to game\u2062 it.<\/p>\n<p>Brown cited a movie that engaged in a\u2064 campaign to get\u200c negative reviews either changed or buried \u2062on little-seen sites so that its Tomatometer rating would rise from\u200b a\u200b \u201crotten\u201d rating to\u200b a \u201cfresh\u201d rating on the Tomatometer. And it worked.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is how and when the Tomatometer\u200d starts tallying reviews for a\u200d score in the first place. And \u200cVulture hastens to point\u2063 out it is a system in which \u201cIts math stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cScores are \u200dcalculated by\u200d classifying each review\u200b as either positive or negative and then dividing the number of positives by the\u200b total,\u201d\u2062 Brown \u2062wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole formula. Every \u2063review carries the same weight whether it runs in a major newspaper\u200d or a Substack with a dozen subscribers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAnother problem \u2014 and where the trickery often begins \u2014 is that Rotten Tomatoes scores \u2063are posted after a movie receives only a handful of reviews, sometimes as few as five, even if those reviews may be \u2062an unrepresentative sample,\u201d Brown wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is sort of like a cable-news network declaring an Election Night winner after a single county reports its results. But studios see it as a feature, since, with\u2063 a little elbow \u2062grease, they can sometimes\u200b fool people into believing a \u2064movie is better than it\u2062 is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Brown further explained that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/marvel-studios-boss-reportedly-confirms-trans-superheroes-coming-absolutely-yes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">studio<\/a> will hand-pick the \u200creviewers they\u200d think with love\u2064 their movie\u200d and invite them for a preview. And then they \u2063sit back as those\u200d reviewers write\u2062 glowing pieces that first show on\u2062 Rotten Tomatoes.\u2064 But those few positive \u200creviews may be a long way off \u2063from the \u200boverall perception of the\u200b movie after a wider audience\u200b has gotten a\u200b chance to \u2063see it.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, before they get that chance, a misleading \u201cfresh\u201d rating just might fool more \u2064people into assuming it is good and spending their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hate-being-spewed-in-the-name-of-patriotism-wapo-opinion-attacks-anthem-before-games-2\/\" title=\"\u2018Hate Being Spewed In The Name Of Patriotism\u2019: WaPo Opinion Attacks Anthem Before Games\">hard-earned money<\/a> to go \u2062see the\u200c film.<\/p>\n<p>Brown suspects this skewed practice\u2064 even helped\u2063 the most recent \u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/marvels-pro-socialism-flick-facing-historic-2nd-weekend-loss-pro-jesus-film-shatters-expectations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marvel superhero flick<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cFor example,\u2064 in February, the\u2063 Tomatometer\u2062 score\u2063 for \u2018Ant-Man and \u2062the Wasp: Quantumania\u2019 debuted at 79 percent based on its first batch\u2064 of \u200breviews. Days \u200blater, after more critics\u200b had weighed in, its rating sank into the 40s,\u201d Brown wrote. \u201cBut the gambit may have worked. \u2018Quantumania\u2019 had \u2063the best opening weekend of any movie in the Ant-Man series, at $106 million. In its second weekend, with its rottenness\u200d more firmly established, the film\u2019s grosses slid \u206269 percent, the steepest drop-off \u2063in Marvel\u200b history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Then there is the problem with who is doing the reviewing on the \u200cplatform. Over the last few years, Rotten\u200d Tomatoes initiated a new system to bring \u201cdiversity\u201d to the ranks of its reviewers.<\/p>\n<p>While most\u2064 of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/make-vomit-jaws-star-torpedoes-hollywoods-new-woke-inclusion-standards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">diversity-obsessed Hollywood<\/a> thought \u200bthat was wonderful, there is no accounting for accuracy or veracity in a\u200b strict numerical goal of adding\u2062 women or minorities and cutting down its\u200b number of \u2062<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/todays-kids-despise-authority-thanks-to-a-disastrous-duo-lockdowns-and-crt\/\" title=\"Today\u2019s Kids Despise Authority Thanks To A Disastrous Duo: Lockdowns And CRT\">evil white men<\/a>. How can you trust the site\u2019s reviews \u200dafter\u2062 it \u2064instituted changes \u200cbased on increasing \u201cdiversity\u201d percentages instead of working to add excellent reviewers?<\/p>\n<p>Further, adding more \u201cqueer\u201d reviewers, or \u201cwomen\u201d\u200c reviewers or \u201cblack\u201d reviewers simply to have that statistic pumped up\u200c may\u2064 just be growing the number of friendly \u200creviewers\u2064 that these PR firms can cajole into posting\u2064 positive reviews. Just for example, a self-identified \u201cqueer\u201d review is far more likely to \u2062love a film that has queer characters of story segments \u2014 \u2063whether it is good or not \u2014 just because it adds to \u201cqueer representation.\u201d And \u200bthe \u2063studios know this.<\/p>\n<p>The upshot is that Rotten Tomatoes\u200c seems to have far too \u200cmany \u200bholes and is\u200c too easy to game for its review numbers to be trusted. And \u200dif the system can so\u200b easily be hacked and gamed \u2062by the very studios that it is supposed\u200d to be \u2063rating, then \u2063what good is the\u200c site in point of \u200dfact?<\/p>\n<p>Sadly,\u2063 it\u2063 may just be one more American \u201cinstitution\u201d that becomes viewed as corrupt and untrustworthy.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/top-hollywood-website-hit-scandal-calling-reviews-doubt-report\/\">Top Hollywood Website \u200bHit \u2063with\u200b Scandal, Calling Reviews Into Doubt: Report<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The popular movie website Rotten Tomatoes is highly referenced online and its review scores are used in ads to attract viewers. However, doubts are arising about the authenticity of these scores. If the website&#8217;s &#8220;Tomatometer&#8221; reviews are indeed questionable, it could have significant consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":2029444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2029443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2029443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2029444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2029443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2029443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2029443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}