Rotten Tomatoes removes fan scores after trolls "review-bomb" Captain Marvel
As of yesterday, trolls will no longer be able to trash a movie before it's released or make it appear as though fewer people want to see it on Rotten Tomatoes. The site has made several changes to its design and functionality, including changing the 'Want To See' percentage score, and throwing away the comment sections that were supposed to facilitate conversation on movies prior to release.
The change was sparked after the Captain Marvel experienced an interminable influx of 'Want To See' score pests and people leaving negative comments about the film, which they haven't even seen yet. The same kind of trolls who attempted to do the same thing to Marvels “Black Panther film”, which went on to make a BILLION DOLLARS in spite of it. Trying to undersell the anticipation of the film probably wont work in their favor, as the pre-sale numbers are higher than all but 2 MCU films.
The 'Want To See' tag now only reflects the number of users who have noted interest in watching a movie. RT states that the new format will "more accurately and authentically represent the voice of fans, while protecting our data and public forums from bad actors."
In addition, it had this to say on its new RT product update blog:
As of February 25, we will no longer show the ‘Want to See’ percentage score for a movie during its pre-release period. Why you might ask? We’ve found that the ‘Want to See’ percentage score is often times confused with the ‘Audience Score’ percentage number. (The ‘Audience Score’ percentage, for those who haven’t been following, is the percentage of all users who have rated the movie or TV show positively – that is, given it a star rating of 3.5 or higher – and is only shown once the movie or TV show is released.)
They also cut off all comments prior to release date
Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature for now is the best course of action. Don’t worry though, fans will still get to have their say: Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have.
Again, Captain Marvel has already overtaken Aquaman, Deadpool and Wonder Woman in terms of ticket presales in the US, with the film currently being the third-biggest MCU preseller to date, just behind Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther. Contrary to the tone of many trolls, tons of people actually want to see it.
It'll be out in the UK next week.
