I need to vent.
There is an ongoing debate online, in forums, behind closed doors in conference rooms at studios and in comments sections regarding Rotten Tomatoes' role in big budget Hollywood film busts right now that I can no longer bite my tongue about. This conversation revolves around reviews for films on sites like RottenTomatoes.com, who aggregate all the reviews and create a score for a film.
First of all, there are more sites who do this than just Rotten Tomatoes (RT), like MetaCritic.com. Yet, sites like MetaCritic never enter the conversation as it solely revolves around RT. There is a problem with this because RT takes the simplest approach to this aggregation format where a movie is either 'fresh' or it is 'rotten.' So if a reviewer likes a movie it goes toward its postive 'fresh' score, but if someone dislikes a movie then it reduces the postive score and lowers it into the 'rotten' score range.
It's not rocket science, however, studios are now blaming RT as the reason their movies are becoming busts in the box office. This really annoys me because I like movies that are seen as being 'fresh' just as much as I like many films that are considered 'rotten' movies. I use my own judgement and opinion on what I see in trailers and TV spots and from what I've read online to gauge my own interests. But now studios seem to think the general movie audience cannot think for themselves and uses RT as their only guide for if he/she wants to see a movie in a theater.
While I cannot speak for the general audience, and I can only speak for myself, I think this is absolutely insulting and ignorant that any studio would place the blame like this. Take a look in the mirror and point the finger at yourself Mr. Studio Exec. We are in the Information Age with the Internet and if a studio thinks people cannot do a little bit of research or at least watch some trailer and television spots over on YouTube to see if they want to see a movie or not, then I have to say fuck you to the Hollywood executives who are making these claims.
I have no respect for anyone who uses this excuse to lower the opinion level of the audience they are trying to pursue. Here's my idea, and it's a very simple one, stop green lighting scripts that are mediocre and stop rushing movies into production sooner than they should be. I understand studios want to claim release dates years in advance, and they have to adhere to meeting that release date, but there is nothing wrong with delaying a movie if it truly needs more development or script work to make the movie better. This simple concept would reduce the amount of post-production reshoots as well as reduce the studio executive need to meddle with movies that are in the editing room. (I'm looking right at you Warner Bros.)
Do some people put RT scores on a pedestal? Sure. But not everyone.
Word-of-mouth is the biggest killer of movies that become busts and this is not the fault of critics or review sites like RT. Just look at how epic of a second weekend fall off Warner Bros. had with BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. It dropped nearly 70-percent which is one of the highest drops in recent memory. This wasn't the fault of critics or reviews or sites like RT, this was a direct result of word-of-mouth from moviegoers who saw the movie and then told everyone they know how bad of a movie it was. On the flip side, a movie like DEADPOOL received tremendous reviews and opened big in its first weekend while its second weekend drop was one of the smallest in recent memory. The sustained success of DEADPOOL wasn't propelled by critics or reviews or RT, it was propelled by word-of-mouth because it was a highly entertaining movie fans told everyone to go out and see it.
Sure, maybe sites like RT do hurt movie releases somewhat, but not to the point where studios are now blaming RT for their movies being busts, as being reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Again, this is insulting because the blame and finger pointing needs to be directed at the studios and their execs for pushing these movies into production too hard, and too fast.
Work on these scripts a little bit more and if you feel like it is ready to move into production, take another look (or two) over the script to make sure its making the best movie possible. This might just help your movie get better reviews, scores and word-of-mouth; which is the best approach to preventing box office busts. Blaming Rotten Tomatoes is just pathetic.
Written by Daniel Wolf, DailySuperHero.com Founder & Publisher
Comments
Post a Comment