Rotten Tomatoes is taking on the trolls. The review aggregator site announced that it is revamping its Audience Rating System, specifically its comments section and “Want to See” feature, in order to “more accurately and authentically represent the voice of fans, while protecting our data and public forums from bad actors.”
The “Want to See” score will no longer be visible prior to its title’s release. Per RT, this score is often mistaken for the “Audience Score” number, or 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.”
In addition, RT users will not be able to leave comments until a movie has premiered. “Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership,” the company states. This update means films such as “Captain Marvel” will no longer be the target of trolls’ negative review campaigns. If people want to talk shit about a film on RT, they’ll have to wait until it’s actually in theaters. And if they’re hellbent on derailing a film’s success because of its woman or POC lead, they’ll have to find another outlet to do so.
These Audience Rating changes are just Rotten Tomatoes’ latest effort to make its system more inclusive and less vulnerable to trolls. Last summer it overhauled its critics criteria, paving the way for more voices — especially women and POC’s voices — to be heard. Over 200 critics were deemed Tomatometer-approved.
“Captain Marvel” opens March 8. The Carol Danvers origin story is Marvel’s first woman-led pic as well as its first woman-directed title. Anna Boden helmed the superhero story with Ryan Fleck.
