You now have to prove you bought a ticket for your Rotten Tomatoes review to actually count
Aux Features Film
Rotten Tomatoes has a troll problem, one it’s still figuring out how to address. Now, in coordination with its parent company, Fandango, the ratings aggregator will only allow verified ticket buyers to contribute to a film’s overall Audience Score, Variety reports. Any user, verified or not, can still leave a review, but if they can’t prove they bought a ticket their flaccid missives against whatever female superhero they’re mad about that day will fail to impact the overall score.
This will ostensibly help curve the “review bombs” dropped on films like Captain Marvel and The Last Jedi, which saw their Audience Scores dropped by the coordinated campaigns of sad 4chan boys. There is, however, an arguably cynical undercurrent—for now, at least, the only way to verify your purchase is through Fandango. The company insists the move isn’t just a campaign to drive ticket buyers to their app, saying they’re “open to any partner that wants to come on board,” but it’s nevertheless a shrewd move. They do say, however, that deals are in place with AMC Theatres, Regal, and Cinemark Theatres to participate, but those purchases won’t be able to be verified until sometime later this year.
The change will impact this week’s new releases—Aladdin, Brightburn, and Booksmart—and will apply to all future new releases from here on out. Rotten Tomatoes, meanwhile, will also be integrated into Fandango’s site and mobile app. Old scores, meanwhile, won’t change.
106 Comments
Good. Anything to keep a clamp down on incel scumbags is a good thing.
has anyone even tried actual clamps?
Yes and they were abandoned since they enjoyed them.
I disagree with the notion that these guys are into anything kinky. I bet it’s all very straightforward missionary and doggie style for them, and over in approximately 17 seconds.
To this end – let’s remember, one of their regular thought leaders, Roosh, is the same guy who was arguing too much fixation on women’s butts would turn men gay.
I generally find the tired “haha, bet those homophobes are all secretly gay themselves” idea to be both reductive and offensive to all concerned, but that does make me wonder if Roosh is just projecting the fact that when he looks at a women’s arse his mind quickly turns to men. Might just be a him thing.
Personally, I’m looking at it less as ‘secret gay’ more as part of a larger all around high-end sexual insecurity of all sorts.
His recent shift from pick up artist to Bible thumper just throwing a few more coals into that furnace
Surely an exception could me made if one has read the wikipedia synopsis???
Or if you’re the popcorn guy with free access to what’s playing and to unlimited fake butter, even if it goes straight into your mouth!
A picture of me taken at the Ren Faire while wearing a fedora has gotta be worth something.
Incorrect in fact you now owe money
Man, when I get my allowance, I’m gonna break this thing wide open.
You still complain about getting thrown out of that Ren Faire, but you should have been wearing something other than the fedora….
Thrown out? I’m the mayor!
What about if a really good friend spoils the ending for us?
There should be an exception if you’ve taken a film studies class, or claim that you don’t need a film studies class because you know all that stuff instinctively already.
Hey! I answer yes to both those things! Give me a pulitzer now, or I write a scathing thinkpiece about why the Pulitzers are corrupt and decadent.
Good!Now you can explain those icons in my showtime comcast xfinity thingieI just want to watch “The Death of Stalin” for the eighteenth time!!
Well I will just buy a ticket to the movie and not go so my meandering rant about the dangers of women folk superheros will be verified. That’ll show em.
I’ll buy FIFTY TICKETS
If a bunch of ill-mannered trolls leaving poorly edited reviews of a movie that hasn’t even been released yet is enough to sway you from seeing them, then you are an easily manipulated sheep. And if you believe that these “review bombs” are anything other than Russian troll farms hired by producers to drive up visibility of a film through manufactured controversy, I’ve got a bridge in Alaska to sell you.
I was kind of with you for the first part, but that second one is a bit much. Some may exist, but not necessarily to that extent.
Sorry, but it’s all too predictable. Oh look, a lady in a movie. Oh look, here come the incels. Oh look, here comes the Woke Patrol. Oh look, here’s a bunch of hot takes about how effective the incels have been. Oh look, here’s another bunch of hot takes about how we must not let the incels win. Oh look, record breaking attendance and opening night box office numbers. Oh look, the incels say they won. What were we talking about again?Oh look, a lady in a movie…..
Just because the current culture wars are predictable does not mean they require a nefarious Russian operation to single-handedly manufacture them.
Sure, sure. Troll farms were used to manipulate the US Election and got Donald Trump elected by reinforcing bad information and unsubstantiated rumors utilizing popular social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, 4Chan and others, but “review bombs” of upcoming blockbusters in order to spread a rather vague “anti-woman” message are completely organic.
Good point. Everyone knows that Putin has been very vocal about his deep concerns regarding Captain Marvel’s audience score.
Are you just logging on to the internet for the first time in ten years? The MRA/Incel/PuA/”Red-Pill”/anti-Feminist universe on the internet has become massive. There’s even a name for it: The “Manosphere.” And I’m not just talking about the usual suspects like 4chan, Reddit, etc, I’m talking sites like Roosh V/Return of the Kings, A Voice for Men, whiteribbon.org, etc, etc, where there are tens of thousands of users. The “Manosphere” intersects with White Supremacist/Racist internet too since they both believe the same thing, and there are your review bombers. They’ll swarm a site and then go back to theirs and high-five each other thinking that they “stuck it” to the “libtard feminazis.”Before you go any further, go on over to Roosh V comments section alone and prepare to have your mind blown the numbers these guys have. They aren’t and can’t be paid Russian shills.
Yes, all that is real. And it is clearly being exploited to drive sales. The incels are being exploited by catering to their base emotions, and that’s easy to demonstrate. Go to any “Manosphere” website and say Hillary was robbed, and watch them swarm. The woke are being exploited by their insatiable need to be right about fucking everything, also easy to demonstrate. Go to Jezebel and say, “Louis CK didn’t do anything wrong. ” The entertainment “news” sites are exploited because they largely hire bloggers who think adding fuck to something they read on a different article is “journalism.” The entertainment “news” editors are also for sale, and that isn’t even a trade secret.It’s not even a question of Why Would They. It’s a question of Why Wouldn’t They?
Now you’re pivoting and goalpost moving. First you claimed that it was all made up. Now you’re saying they are for real after all, but the corporations/media takes advantage of them. The behavior or Rotten Tomatoes and other companies and sites like the big social media ones is contrary to that. Why would these places be banning/blocking/restricting them if they’re wanted for profit?
Has it just occured to you that the easy and anoymitiy of the internet just made it easier for shitheels to band together to voice their anger, hate and rage and attack others without serious repercussions?
Uh huh. See you in two months when we’re having this exact same conversation when Far From Home drops. And then again when Birds Of Prey drops. And then again when the next Black Widow movie drops. And every time after until we quit responding to it favorably and they move on to another tactic. It’ll be totally organic then too.
Are you actually going to answer my questions/points? Or just continue to deflect and move those goalposts because your initial OP didn’t make any sense? Again, if this is all on purpose by the media/corporate America to profit, why are they moving to block/ban them instead which has been the trend? And why is it so hard for you to understand that ease and anonymity of the internet just made it easier for shitheels to band together to voice their anger, hate and rage and attack others without serious repercussions? No conspiracy or anything behind it, just good ole fashioned human behavior, psychology, and herd mentality.
If your point is “this is all totally reasonable and organic” we disagree, and I’m not seeing any forward movement on either of our points. What is happening here is classic manipulation. This will come out soon enough. Watch and see.
Who is this “we” and what is “disagree” or “forward movement” when you keep playing games instead of answering my questions and points. Insisting on sticking to your ridiculous conspiracy theories that make no sense or basis in reality.
Is this a Joe Rogan talking point or something I just don’t understand. Dude seems really eager to make this conspiracy a totally legit thing.
Probably because you and we touched a nerve and is not letting on more than he’s willing to honestly admit. Usually works out that way when it comes to the internets.
No, man, I’ve answered you. It’s not a conspiracy.It’s a couple producers paying some kid to fire up a bot net to start posting inflammatory bullshit tailored to whichever politics the bot is writing to. If the bot goes to 4Chan, then it’ll head on over to /pol/ and start in with Brie Larson Hates Men So Whatever You Do Don’t Go See Captain Marvel on March 8th, and off we go. A different program is written for Reddit that says Hey, The Incels Are Mad About This Aren’t They Stupid Lets Show Them By Seeing Captain Marvel Twice! We Can Preorder On Fandango!!Places like AVC and Buzzfeed will grab literally any Twitter post they can find that makes any mention of the current Controversy Du Jour. I’ve seen some tweets that were, no shit, made by someone with 14 followers and 9 previous tweets across 6 years that get quoted as if they were official statements from the Office Of Woke. Go back and look up some of AVC’s old Louis CK gets DESTROYED by two ladies on Instagram posts and tell me I’m wrong. And in the end, none of it matters. Captain Marvel breaking records. Infinity War breaking records. Endgame breaking records. The Last Jedi makes 250 million first weekend. The Incels still declare victory. The Woke smugly pat themselves on the back for yelling Nuh-uh. There will be long think pieces declaring both sides correct depending on where the article is published. And the cycle begins again. You are not wrong. Many of these people are genuine. Do not believe for one second that that they are leaders, tho. They are blindly following whatever is trending and applying their own bias. That is their role, but they are being manipulated by bad players. It might be harmless when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes, but this is exactly how it went down in 2016, and likely how it will go again in 2020.
No, you aren’t. You keep continuing to double down on your nonsensical conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality and no serious evidence to support it. Saying yet again, its Occams Razor. The internet makes it easy for a jackass to be a jackass and get away with it and that’s it and all there is to it. Liberal, or “woke” as you say or Conservative, the simple logic stays the same: if I’m looking to grind an axe towards someone I don’t like/different from me and get away with it, I can come online, create a fake name and commence doing that. Its really that simple. The idea that the media or Russia as you initially implied is doing it and encouraging this to boost clicks and make money is stupid. That’s the whole point of this article. Rotten Tomatoes is discouraging it by restricting how you can comment in order to cut down on review bombing which is how your theory makes no sense. If it were true, wouldn’t it allow review bombing in order to profit as you say? Even here the AVC/Kinjaverse, you have to be approved by the staff to be allowed to post and have frequently purged the commenters rolls in order to make things more harmonious, which again, contradicts your point. So how can they be encouraging this, when they actively work to restrict the types of people viewing and commenting on their articles? Shouldn’t it be a free for all?
You’re the one who keeps saying conspiracy. It’s not a conspiracy. It is literally a couple people and a bunch of computers being hired to do this by people with a vested interest in having people talk about their product. These outfits exist all over the place. Ever bought gold for WoW? Same thing, except those people are paid to play WoW. These people are paid to go on 4Chan and post the same inflammatory crap over and over. Ever had your computer infected and you started sending spam emails out to everyone? Same deal, except that malware was for selling boner pills. Some malware is for spreading bullshit. And it’s so easy to spread because of people who continue to believe things on the internet as if we haven’t learned this lesson a hundred times before. I once saw a Twitch streamer who’d been an affiliate for maybe a month get raided by a bunch of accounts that only spoke Russian. For about a week, 150 or so of them will pile in, start chatting, and drop a bunch of bits. You’ll make partner pretty quick, if you start showing up with numbers like that. You think maybe he paid someone to powerlevel him, or maybe he just has lots of friends who speak a language he clearly doesn’t? You can literally hire people to do what I am describing. Why wouldn’t they?Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t need to be in on it. AV Club doesn’t need to be in on it. Russia doesn’t need to be in on it. I don’t need to be in on it. It just happens. All the time. You ask why RT or AVC are actively working to stop stuff like this? It’s because they keep getting tricked by it all the time. They aren’t complicit. They are just doing their jobs. They are victims just as much as we are victims. They have no choice but to respond to these dishonest people. I’m just calling it out.
Because your OP is suggesting that this is all an intentional ploy, but you have zero evidence to support that other than your own personal and rather paranoid thoughts, but you expect everyone to mindlessly swallow. QED: Conspiracy.And yet, five comments later you still cannot cogently and directly answer and address my question and point which is the point of the article you’re commenting on: Why would they be “tricked” and be “victims” on something you say repeatedly they are paying/encouraging people to do? That. Makes. No. Damn. Sense. QED: Nonsensical conspiracy theory.
I’m sorry, but what part of “hiring people with specialized skills and equipment to deliberately spread a specific message across social media with the intention of eliciting a highly predictable response” is lost on you? Do you genuinely believe what I am describing is so fantastic as to be impossible? Because it is not. It happens every day, and has for a long time. We’re literally trying to impeach the President for conspiring with Russia to do exactly what I am describing while running, and in all likelihood, that’s exactly what he did. It’s extremely likely that Hillary used bots and spammers as well.It is an intentional ploy. It works too. All the time. It’s just no one wants to admit they’re dumb enough to fall for it. We all do, tho. Sucks, but we do. It’s not a conspiracy. We’re just that easy to manipulate.
I’m sorry, but what part of “hiring people with specialized skills and equipment to deliberately spread a specific message across social media with the intention of eliciting a highly predictable response” is lost on you?
The part where you didn’t provide any hard proof other than your own words? Do you genuinely believe what I am describing is so fantastic as to be impossible?
Did you not get what another user said upthread to you about just because it sounds plausible, doesn’t mean it actually is plausible and is fantastic and impossible. We’re literally trying to impeach the President for conspiring with Russia to do exactly what I am describing while running, and in all likelihood, that’s exactly what he did. It’s extremely likely that Hillary used bots and spammers as well.
Funny how there is hard evidence to support that, but there is zero you can come up with to support yours. It is an intentional ploy. It works too. All the time. It’s just no one wants to admit they’re dumb enough to fall for it. We all do, tho. Sucks, but we do. It’s not a conspiracy. We’re just that easy to manipulate.
“We” meaning you because virtually everyone in this board has dismissed what you’re saying as conspiracy nonsense. Even if they kindof sort of agreed with you. And in that respect, Bronto is right, you do need to step away from the keyboard, take off the tin foil, and take a break. I’m done here. Last word is yours.
Nobody likes being told they got tricked. It’s cool. Have a good break. See you in two months when this same story comes around again. It’s be totally new and excited and fresh. Just like last time.
Why Wouldn’t They? Because it’s a lot of time and effort and money to put into something that will happen organically anyway.
Sadly, this.
It’s easy for trolls to get pissed off at pop culture. It’s like getting a dog to bark in a kennel.
Getting them to give a shit about politics – now THAT needs an extra kick in the ass to get going.
Also, as this entire argument plays out, I keep remembering the last time the implication of foreign interference in Hollywood came up – when Sony claimed Korea was behind their email leaks.
Only for it to come out later that it was all the work of a former IT employee with an ax to grind.
America has been steadily reducing its reliance on foreign hot takes for years now.
We have the most extensive hot take reserves in the WORLD and we’ve only just started tapping them!
Predictable doesn’t mean conspiracy. Some stereotypical behavior got that way for a good reason. Women get called idiots or ugly or slutty much quicker than anyone says Adam Sandler is a fugly greasey slob that probably got the clap multiple times and maybe he’d look cuter if he worked out a little and dressed nicer.
How many times does Hollywood need to get caught straight up lying about shit before we stop trusting them? It’s 2019. Not only is my scenario not impossible, it’s incredibly easy. You don’t even need a conspiracy. You need a couple computers. It’s far less believable that movie producers haven’t figured this out yet, or they are such paragons of virtue that they wouldn’t dream of being dishonest in their marketing.
The potential for a conspiracy to exist is not actually evidence that it DEFINITELY DOES exist.
I don’t care if Hollywood is lying to me, shit that’s so unimportant. I can read, see and hear and with these skills I can often figure shit out. Do people say shit about women often? Yup.
You’re hypothesis is plausible, but I’m going to Hanlon’s Razor this: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” True, people being shitty about films with women is kind of malicious on it’s own, so maybe “Never attribute to organised malice that which is adequately explained by general shittiness” would be more apt.
I will agree that the vast majority of the so-called culture war is literally manufactured and fueled by a bunch of algorithms peddling clickbait for maximum metrics, but the Russian angle is just a tiny bit much.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in on it a little bit for the sheer shitstirring lulz, but not by any significant margin. Certainly not going out of their way to bomb RT scores.
Yeah, adding Russian was a mistake and took away from my main point. It’s what killed the Green New Deal too.
Wow, two completely idiotic takes in one comment! Good for you. Here’s star number three for ya.
A lot of ‘news’ sites were reporting the Want to See and Audience Reviews as the Rotten Tomatoes Score for previous movies that have been reviewed bombed. So I think it’s completely fair for people who don’t routinely follow entertainment new to be confused.
I routinely follow entertainment. Every day. That’s why this is so clear to me. People don’t like being told they’ve been tricked, but ya’ll been tricked.
Because of Hollywood we’ve all been tricked into thinking women are treated unfairly and paid less, but they in fact are treated and paid entirely equally and no one is ever quick to judge? Does Alabama, Missouri, Georgia and Ohio also not exist?
No, because everyone is all riled up about woman being treated unfairly is how you are being tricked. Your compassion is being used against you. That’s what manipulation is.
Dude, go outside and take a walk. Read a book, something. I’m not being tricked into supporting shit I like. Sheesh see my comment on the Morrissey article.
I’m in the same boat. I spend a lot of time online during work. But my partner, she doesn’t. I’ve explained what the Tomato Score is like 20 times.
it’s less about whether or not people are being manipulated, more about keeping the general perception of rotten tomatoes’ system being something people can rely on.if the general perception becomes ‘well these reviews are all fake’ rotten tomatoes’ whole thing is ruined. it makes sense.
I, for one, would like to hear more about this bridge.
It’s not that I don’t think there are Russian troll farms; but I’m damn near certain there are plenty of assholes with nothing better to do than trash films they don’t like the look of.
Creepy men ruin everything.
Even Paltrow-approved Italian food! I’m talking to you, Batali!
If 4channers are now forced to buy tickets for the movies they want to review bomb, can we expect a new genre of trollbait movies designed to attract them? ‘Burning cinema tickets’ could become the new ‘burning my expensive Nikes’, if the film in question was Admiral Holdo: A Star SJWars Story.
would watch
The GOP way.
“Alright I figured out that you can buy a 10 pack of children’s tickets in advance, and then redeem them for each individual film later. Doing it this way it works out to $6.23 each. So I went ahead and bought 50. I’m ready to own any HollyWEIRD SJW bait that comes out for a while, heh heh heh…”
“Coming to cinemas this December, ‘How Single Moms Saved the Holiday Season’. Each tickets comes with a free Starbucks coffee in a plain cup!”
RottenTomatoes will regret this decision. My reviews have destroyed ENTIRE CITIES!
My reviews of Titan A.E. blew up a planet.
The ugly guy in the movie reviews novelty stores in seedy strip malls, and he’s famous!
The people have spoken and the world isn’t ready for a chubby, pompous eunuch!
When he saw the effects of the atom review bomb, Oppenheimer said, “Now I am become death, destroyer of RT scores.”
I hear the Russians have a hydrogen review bomb that can destroy entire franchises.
So if I prove I bought a ticket and still didn’t like The Last Jedi or Captain Marvel does that mean that my reasons for that aren’t dismissed as just being a dumb cis man?Also how is this going to be applied to home release…which is a sentence I just wrote because I expect people to have logical reasons for liking or disliking something and not just trying to kill a box office because they’re angry. So I guess nevermind?
You’re dismissed for being dumb right now so just shut the fuck up already.
Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful response.
You’re welcome.
Really, we’re going to talk about RT’s self-interest in using Fandango as a purchase validator for people who want to vomit their shitty movie reviews onto the world (because it’s such a privilege that people will forgo buying tickets any other way), and side-step the far more offensive conflict of interest associated with reviewing and selling movies within the same app?
RTs methodology being relatively neutral helps, but there’s more to what they do then just tally numbers. They decide who the “Cream of the crop” reviewers are, they write the “consensus” review, and they control how all of it is presented. If they want to make a bad movie look good to drive ticket sales, they can.
That tin foil might be on a little tight, friend. You’d have a point about if a) Fandango only sold tickets to some movies, not all of them, and b) there were no other major review platforms to compare scores.
My point stands regardless. There is a conflict of interest.Fandango doesn’t need to sell tickets to only some movies to have an incentive to drum up excitement for movies. It’s not a zero sum game. More excitement = better. The success of blockbuster movies (let’s imagine Avatar 2) depends a lot on the RT score and consensus. They set the narrative for whether it’s a movie worth seeing.In any event, Fandango is in bed with Warner Brothers, so to the extent you think they need an incentive to favour only certain movies, they have it. The fact metacritic exists doesn’t remove RT’s conflict of interest. It gives RT a reason to be cautious about acting on its conflict of interest, because it risks being exposed if it gets too creative. But the reality is that most people don’t check multiple review aggregators. They check the RT score and nothing else.
yo. it’s 2019. “offensive conflict of interest” isn’t a thing anymore. haven’t you been paying attention?
Rateyourmusic does something where your ratings can count for more or less based on your rating behavior. If you’re a user with hundreds of ratings that look anything like a bell curve, your ratings are given greater weight. If you’re a user with a couple dozen ratings and they’re all 5.0s or 0.5s, your ratings are given lesser (or no) weight. Seems like an easier method than trying to verify who’s actually consumed the rated content.
They’ll just go on over to Metacritic where one can still review bomb with impunity.
Now if Goodreads could introduce the same thing to help people from review bombing books that they heard were offensive.
*screams forever about the reviewer who complained about the lesbianism in a Sarah Waters novel*
Review aggregator sites are worthless. 🍅🍅🍅
[Pictured] Any sane human being after ten minutes on the Internet.
Good.
We could just not take rotten tomatoes scores seriously. That seems easy enough.
My sister pulls recipes off the internet. A good half of the reviews declare “This recipe is horrible. I substituted tofu for two of the main ingredients and added more salt instead of crushed garlic, and the result was inedible.” Unrestricted public reviews are very often a public menace.I say brava, Rotten Tomatoes.
Welp, there goes the incel version of Pinterest.
“saw their Audience Scores dropped by the coordinated campaigns of sad 4chan boys” Funny how when a film gets a ton of bad reviews, that’s the trolls fault, but if it gets loads of upvotes, then it’s them being blinded fanboys the way Venom got plenty of audience love, but notsomuch from critics. It’s almost as if critic and audience opinions are drastically different or something and people are letting their biases get in the way… How’s this for the simple explanation? People really didn’t like them and expected more and got much less, so they took out their frustration on it via Rotten Tomatoes. Look at how poorly films like the Prequels did. Or the new Terminator films. Or how badly new reboots and remakes have been getting.
yeah. Venom was *not* good though. i can absolutely see it going totally gangbusters in the “edgy” (owns a mall sword) mid-20s virgin neckbeard set though. maybe not the best example for showing a big critic/audience split when that split is because of the exact same review-bombing crowd.
Okay, take “The Orville”. Critics do not like it. The audience overwhelmingly does. Star Trek Discovery. Critics mostly like it. Fans mostly don’t. Bohemian Rhapsody. Critics rolled their eyes, the fans were like “This is awesome!” And you can’t just whine “neckbeards” as a way to dismiss everyone who loves the film/films for THOSE.
Limiting it to Fandango will curb it more than anything else. I don’t have a RT account, but if I did, I wouldn’t be able to leave a review since I never buy tickets via Fandango.But if they do eventually include verification from other theaters, presumably similar to Disney where you write a code on your ticket and upload a picture, I predict it won’t actually affect the audience scores all that much.
Atom is so much better than Fandango though.
Now, IMDB could use something like this too. Like for example every single GOT final ep review was a 1 on the first night…while there is some real fan backlash, I don’t know that there’s enough real dissatisfied people to make that ranking appear as low as it is.Granted, that’s TV, but review bombing is prevalent regardless, and that none of these places have taken much action up until now is stupid.
I think part of the problem is that people who vehemently dislike something are far more likely to vent their takes than people who thought it was alright.
Totally. I believe there have been studies that endorphins between complaint and satisfaction are drastically different, and the ones that come along with complaint are the ones that generally motivate action.Basically, people respond more and will go further when they’ve been wronged versus when they’re happy.
keep in mind some of these ultra-nerds have YouTube rants that eclipse the length of the movie that so egregiously penetrated their tender childhoods. if they can sit and drone on in their weird incel meme speak for 2+ hours… guessing a $12 ticket won’t stop them. then they’ll do the dramatic conservatives-are-bad-at-protesting deal where they burn the ticket.
This is … a good idea.