Rotten Tomatoes considers stricter verification rules for audience reviews

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Before Marvel’s CAPTAIN MARVEL hit theaters Rotten Tomatoes instituted changes to its user comments section and their “Want to See” rating system in an attempt to stem the flow of negative attention to movies by internet trolls. These restrictions meant not being able to comment on a movie or leave a review of it until the day the movie hit theaters, and word is they aren’t stopping there and are now considering adding an additional layer of restrictions for audiences before they’re allowed to post any reviews.

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Per a report from THR, the site is considering an additional measure that would make it so potential users would have to answer a question about whether or not they’ve actually seen the movie before being able to post. This comes on the heels of an instant wave of negative, spiteful reactions to CAPTAIN MARVEL as soon as comments/reviews were allowed, leading to the audience score to plummet to as low as 25 percent. Similar actions were taken by angry trolls on movies like BLACK PANTHER and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, actions which, shockingly, had no effect given those movies' massive box office intakes. Likewise, MARVEL opened to over $150 million opening weekend and has rocketed past $500 million worldwide, with $1 billion in reach.

Dana Benson, VP communications for Fandango (parent company of Rotten Tomatoes), spoke with THR, saying, “We are disappointed that there was a group of people who were obviously very passionate and who had a negative opinion of the movie, whether they saw it or not.”

After the initial hate wave of reviews against Marvel subsided the Rotten Tomatoes audience percentage has gone up to a positive 62 percent with over 60,000 ratings, which is much more reflective of the non-troll influences Cinemascore of an “A” grade.

Many of these movies that get attacked by trolls online often so incredibly well at the box office, as we’ve seen, and to that IMAX Entertainment president Megan Colligan spoke bluntly to THR. “The trolls have become ineffective now that everyone instantly recognizes that for what it is — people just hating to hate,” Colligan said.

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Adding this additional security measure may not be all that helpful in addressing the problem of these intense negative review attacks (people could just lie and said they saw it), but it's still admirable they're trying to do something to add some credibility to the rating system. Given that this is the internet and anyone can say anything they want about anything that may be a fruitless fight, and to Colligan's point, audiences don't seem to pay trolls any mind. They will see what they want to see no matter what, and some unreasonably angry people aren't going to deter them.

CAPTAIN MARVEL is in theaters now.