Paid reviews found on Rotten Tomatoes, aggregator’s reputation at risk
The reputation of the movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes is under threat. The reason is that some of its critics were allegedly paid for positive movie reviews. This was reported by Vulture, writes IGN.
The expose concerns a PR company called Bunker 15. According to the publication, it paid some critics $50 for each positive review of the 2018 drama Ophelia.
After the first reviews appeared, the film’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes was disappointing – only 46%. But after positive paid reviews, which is actually a manipulation of the system, Ophelia’s rating jumped to 62%.
Vulture claims that the PR company not only paid for positive reviews of the film, but also persuaded one of the critics to change his negative review to a positive one. Bunker 15 denied these allegations.
At the same time, Rotten Tomatoes stated that it takes the integrity of its ratings seriously and does not tolerate any attempts to manipulate them.
Rotten Tomatoes was launched in 1998 with the aim of creating a website where people could access reviews from various film critics. Films with a rating of up to 59% are labeled “rotten” and those with a rating of 60% or more are labeled “fresh”.