Rotten Tomatoes, the popular movie review aggregation site, has been exposed for being hacked and manipulated by a PR firm that paid for positive reviews of its clients’ films.
The PR firm, Bunker 15, also asked some critics who wrote negative reviews to change them to positive or to publish them on smaller blogs that Rotten Tomatoes would not track. This way, the firm was able to boost the scores of films that otherwise would have been rated as “rotten” on the site.
The scam reveals how unreliable and easily hacked Rotten Tomatoes is, and how much influence it has on the film industry and the audience. Many studios use the site’s scores as a marketing tool, and many viewers base their decisions on what to watch on the site’s ratings. However, the site’s methodology is flawed and reductive, as it simplifies every review into a binary positive or negative rating, regardless of the source or the nuance of the critique.
The scandal also raises questions about the ethics and integrity of film criticism in general, and how much it can be trusted in an era of online platforms and social media.
The Rotten Tomatoes scam is not just limited to Hollywood or the U.S. Similar cases have been reported in other countries, such as India, where some critics have been accused of taking bribes or favors from filmmakers or producers to write positive reviews. The problem is global and systemic, and it undermines the credibility and the value of film criticism as an art form and a cultural service.
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