Something is rotten in Tomatoland

A PR firm called Bunker 15 is manipulating the critic scores of movies on Rotten Tomatoes by paying for positive reviews and burying negative ones, according to a new investigative report by Vulture.

Per the report, Bunker 15 allegedly uses a network of “obscure, often self-published critics” who were added to Rotten Tomatoes’ pool of reviewers in 2018 following a change aimed at including critics from YouTube and podcasts.

• Bunker 15 typically offers these little-known critics around $50 for each positive review that ends up on Rotten Tomatoes, despite said practice being banned by the site, several reviewers told Vulture.

🍅📈 Case in point: When a 2018 film called Ophelia initially received a 46% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes after an early press screening, Bunker 15 was allegedly hired to boost the film’s numbers.

Between October 2018 and January 2019, eight reviews were added to Ophelia’s RT critics score – seven of which were positive, and came mostly from critics who previously reviewed other movies that hired Bunker 15.

• This caused Ophelia’s critics score to rise 16%, flipping it from a “Rotten” rating to “Fresh.” One month later, IFC Films bought distribution rights for the movie’s US release.

And the critics’ scores aren’t the only questionable numbers on the site. Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score has also been accused of being easy to manipulate, with several recent Marvel and Disney projects receiving unusually large waves of negative user reviews.