Recently, movie and series aggregator “Rotten Tomatoes,” has been under fire across the Internet because the website has been influenced by a corrupt method in which they could be getting paid for producing good reviews. The accusations come after it was affirmed that reviews for the Daisy Ridley drama Ophel went from being Rotten (which means it obtained a low rating) to being labeled “fresh,” a sign that it was suddenly a good drama.
It is no the first time Rotten Tomatoes has been involved in controversies, but this time consequences could be serious for the website as it might lose credibility in its reviews for upcoming projects. This was corroborated by Vulture, which stated that Bunker 15 has been paying self-published critics 50 dollars to create positive reviews or to change their existing “rotten” critiques into “fresh” reviews.
The report by Vulture states “While most film-PR companies aim to get the attention of critics from top publications, Bunker 15 takes a more bottom-up approach, recruiting obscure, often self-published critics who are nevertheless part of the pool tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. In another break from standard practice, several critics say, Bunker 15 pays them $50 or more for each review.”
This leaves Rotten Tomatoes under quite a suspicious position, since it has had a big say into the movies and series people would prefer to watch or simply avoid. In this sense, the website might just turn into a page with critics that have no validation, so in case the proofs against it are certain that would make readers completely leave Rotten Tomatoes and think twice before taking their word regarding any media product.
A PR firm has been manipulating the Rotten Tomato scores of movies for at least five years by paying some “critics” directly. Truly depressing stuff here by @LaneBrown https://t.co/s0gwMJCfVy
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) September 6, 2023
