Rotten Tomatoes Quietly Buried Film at Center of Exposé
Rotten Tomatoes has seemingly removed the movie Ophelia from several areas of its site after a Vulture article reported that a PR company was paying critics to review their films.
The Vulture piece, published Wednesday, details the steps a PR company called Bunker 15 takes to ensure their movies are “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes’ so-called “Tomatometer.” Allegedly, the PR company has been paying critics $50 or more for each review. (Rotten Tomatoes supposedly prohibits “reviewing based on a financial incentive.”)
The specific case cited is the 2018 Daisy Ridley movie Ophelia, which was initially given a Tomatometer rating of 46 percent (films under 60 percent are deemed “rotten”) after 13 critics’ reviews were logged onto the site following advanced screenings. But after Bunker 15 reportedly started paying critics to review Ophelia, the film’s Tomatometer ranking climbed to a “fresh” 62 percent.