Millions of people around the world use Rotten Tomatoes reviews to decide what movies and series they are going to see, whether they should bother going to the movies, and what content to spend their money on. But the habit of consulting comments to make a consumer or purchase decision, so common in the Internet age, has its risks. It is something that we already verified a few months ago in an investigation by La Vanguardia on some Amazon products. Now Vulture has uncovered a plot of fake reviews on this prestigious film review website.
The American media has revealed that a film advertising company called Bunker 15 paid for positive reviews for Daisy Ridley’s 2018 film, Ophelia. Critics received $50 or more for each review, according to the article.
The goal was for the film to get enough positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to make it seem more attractive to a potential distributor, as well as convince critics to talk to the website and for mixed reviews to receive a “positive” distinction on the site. .
On the other hand, they also prevented the film’s negative reviews from being ignored, a strategy that paid off, since a month after Ophelia was released, IFC Films announced that it had acquired the film for distribution in USA.
“We have thousands of critics on our mailing list. “A small group has established a specific system where filmmakers can sponsor or pay to have a film reviewed,” explained Daniel Harlow, founder of Bunker 15, denying that the company had acted as part of a conspiracy.
Renowned filmmaker Paul Schrader explains it this way in the article: “The system is broken, the public is dumber. Normal people don’t read reviews like they used to. Rotten Tomatoes is something that studios can manipulate. And they do it.”