Low BLACK PANTHER Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score and Metacritic User Score Looks Like Troll Manipulation

Going into the opening of BLACK PANTHER, there was lots of talk about how anti-Disney online groups, and most likely some racist online groups as well, would be attacking its RottenTomatoes' audience score. The review aggregator website made a statement saying they would monitor that end of their online platform to ensure manipulation would not occur.

“We at Rotten Tomatoes are proud to have become a platform for passionate fans to debate and discuss entertainment and we take that responsibility seriously. While we respect our fans’ diverse opinions, we do not condone hate speech. Our team of security, network and social experts continue to closely monitor our platforms and any users who engage in such activities will be blocked from our site and their comments removed as quickly as possible."

But now that moviegoers have been able to see BLACK PANTHER it appears that negative manipulation could still be happening.

ROTTENTOMATOES.COM

Let's take the sample size of Marvel Studios' films, their audience score on RottenTomatoes, and compare past films with BLACK PANTHER as it still seems like a negative trend is happening on RottenTomatoes. First off, sure, I understand that perhaps the general audience is not a fan of this movie. However, it seems unlikely.

Its average review score is at 97 while the audience score currently sits at 74%. This is quite a margin of difference between average review scores and audience scoring. Usually, Marvel Studios films average approximately a difference between review score and audience score between 3–5 points; BLACK PANTHER currently sits at a 23-point differential. This is no where near the norm.

There are some anomalies like AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and its 8-point differencce, but in this example its review score (75) was lower than its audience score (83%) so there was definitely no form of score manipulation by the audience. The same could be said for THOR: THE DARK WORLD and its 11-point difference, but its review score is 66 and audience score is 77%... again, the audience liked the film more than critics, so no manipulation here.

When I look at where BLACK PANTHER and its 74% audience score sits right now and compare them to the audience scores of past Marvel Studios' films, it is one of the studios' worst audience scores yet and by far has the highest differential seen in its 18-movie history. Again, I understand that some people may not have liked this movie as others like myself did, but the score differential is so extreme it is hard to not assume that RottenTomatoes is not doing enough to prevent these online troll groups from tanking the audience score right now.

METACRITIC.COM

Now, let's do some due diligence and compare user scores over on Metacritic.com for BLACK PANTHER and past Marvel Studios films. Right now, the film sits with a user score of 6.3 out of 10.

Please note that scores over on Metacritic tend to trend a bit lower than scores over on RottenTomatoes, but the sample size of using past Marvel Studios movies as a comparison is still a valid way to see if user score manipulation is occurring on this site, too.

As of right now, when publishing this post, BLACK PANTHER has the worst user score of any past Marvel Studios movie. Yes, you read that correctly... the worst user score at 6.3.

Worse than THE INCREDIBLE HULK (7.5), IRON MAN 2 (6.5), IRON MAN 3 (6.5), and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (7.1).

FINAL ASSUMPTION

A Metacritic user score to be the worst in the studios' 18 film history does not seem normal at all. Therefore, it seems plausible that user score manipulation on Metacritic appears to be even more prevalent at the moment than it is over on RottenTomatoes.

If this is indeed happening on these two aggregator websites, it is a damn shame how petty people can be in our society. It's a movie and meant to inspire and entertain, meanwhile some folks have nothing better to do with their lives than sit around and manipulate user and audience scores in an attempt to sway others to not see a movie based on a bad score. Get a fucking life.

In the end, BLACK PANTHER seems to be way more powerful than any manipulative online troll trying to lower scores is as it is now trending toward a huge 4-day domestic opening weekend well over $200 million! That's exactly how you counter these trolls by going to your local theater, seeing BLACK PANTHER, and judging it yourself... and if you love it, go see it again... and maybe another time after that, too.

Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher