Is ‘Gotti’ Manipulating Rotten Tomatoes to Make Its User Score Higher? Suspicious Fan Reviews Spark Debate
Zack Sharf
Marketing for John Travolta‘s “Gotti” went viral this week with an online advertisement that bashed critics as “trolls behind the keyboard” after the film earned a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The advertisement claimed “audiences love” the movie — but the number of fan reviews now flooding Rotten Tomatoes suggest “Gotti” has been seen as widely as “Incredibles 2.” And that seems a little, well, suspicious.
“Gotti” currently has a fresh 68% user score, and at this writing, has 7,068 user reviews; “Incredibles 2” has 7,865. “Gotti” opened in roughly 500 theaters and opened to $1.7 million while “Incredibles 2” played in over 4,000 theaters and had a record-breaking $182 million debut.
At an average ticket price of $9.16, that means of the 187,762 people who watched “Gotti” this weekend, 3.76 percent of them reviewed the film on Rotten Tomatoes. For “Incredibles 2,” which had an audience of 19,944,094, its RT reviewer participation stands at less than .04 percent.
Mashable reporter Kellen Beck cited a Twitter thread from Screen Junkies critic Dan Murrell, bringing attention to the onslaught of five-star fan reviews on the “Gotti” Rotten Tomatoes page. Murrell also pointed to the fact “Gotti” has more user reviews than “Ocean’s 8” (4,852 scores). “Ocean’s 8” opened in 4,145 theaters and has made over $80 million at the U.S. box office to date. The film has also been out for a week longer than “Gotti,” which makes it strange the Travolta movie would already exceed the “Ocean’s 8” fan score by over 2,200 entries.
Murell pointed to an indie like the Jon Hamm-starring “Beirut” as the kind of movie “Gotti” should be emulating on Rotten Tomatoes, which debuted in under 1,000 theaters and opened to $1.7 million. It has only earned 717 user scores in two months.
Another red flag observed by Mashable is how numerous fan reviews are coming from accounts created on Rotten Tomatoes this month. Many users giving “Gotti” five stars have only reviewed “Gotti” and, in some cases, one or two other movies, and a majority of the accounts are private. When reached for comment, Rotten Tomatoes told Mashable “all of the ratings and reviews were left by real users.”
Rotten Tomatoes’ statement rules out bots as the cause of “Gotti’s” high fan score, but it still leaves open the possibility of the “Gotti” team creating real accounts and posting positive user scores. Dennis Rice, who spearheaded the marketing for the film, made note of the film’s positive Rotten Tomatoes user score when speaking to Deadline about the film bombing with critics.
You can read Murrell’s entire Twitter thread below, and click here for more of Mashable’s investigation. IndieWire has reached out to Vertical Entertainment and Rotten Tomatoes for further comment.
I’m also covering this on today’s Charting, but I think this is really interesting (THREAD). Here’s the head of marketing for Gotti defending the movie by citing its high user rating on Rotten Tomatoes. He’s right – the rating is very high. But it’s a very suspicious number. pic.twitter.com/bYElktvJfK
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
Look how many users left a rating for Gotti. Now look at how many left one for Incredibles 2. These numbers shouldn’t be on par with each other. Incredibles 2 did over 100 times the business Gotti did – and opened in 3500 more theaters. pic.twitter.com/oeVFrhnNvv
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
Gotti has MORE user ratings than Ocean’s 8. Again, a movie that has done MUCH more business, opened in more theaters, and has been out a week longer. pic.twitter.com/SjqE9jFCf1
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
For comparison, the film Beirut opened in a similar number of theaters, to a similar amount at the box office. Total user ratings: 708 over two months. Just over 10% what Gotti has received in four days. pic.twitter.com/kvo4a9ETSP
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
My point: more and more, marketers are using the “audience/critic” divide to explain away bad reviews and drive business. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that this tactic is now being used for a film that has an abnormally high number of user reviews for a film of its size.
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
Maybe Gotti has a really outsized, passionate fanbase that loved the film an abnormal amount. But it’s also possible these numbers are being goosed. Just a reminder that ratings aren’t everything, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. Or a shaker of salt, in this case
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
