2017 is being seen as the year that Rotten Tomatoes killed movies, at least by certain people inside the industry. Brett Ratner (of all people) bemoaned the review aggregator, studios blamed the poor box office for their crappy movies on the site, and 20th Century Fox even commissioned a study about the effect Rotten Tomatoes is having on their movies. Lost in the conversation is the fact that critics and audiences both want the same things — good movies — but the fact remains that studios seem completely mystified that if a movie has a low score on Rotten Tomatoes, it won’t do well at the box office.
THR has explored what the industry is doing to try and tackle this “problem.” Solutions have included holding review embargoes for certain, poorly buzzed pictures like “The Mummy,” “The Emoji Movie” and this week’s “The Dark Tower” as close to opening day as possible. Meanwhile, there’s the ever present “threat” of studios eliminating advance screenings for press altogether (something that has been floated numerous times in the past).
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Part of the studio’s irritation stems from the fact that the nation’s biggest movie ticket seller Fandango owns Rotten Tomatoes, and includes scores on their site. And the following statistic about audience purchasing behavior when it comes to scores should frankly surprise no one:
Hollywood studios have commissioned a number of studies on the subject in recent months. National Research Group found that seven out of 10 people said they would be less interested in seeing a movie if the Rotten Tomatoes score was 0 to 25. And social media research firm Fizziology, which tracks every major Hollywood release, discovered that a Rotten Tomatoes score has the most influence on moviegoers 25 and younger.
In short, people aren’t going to spend money on a movie that’s no good. And while studios may toy with the idea of scrapping advance reviews altogether, they underestimate moviegoers’ ability to spot a stinker a long way off. Warner Bros. decided not show Will Ferrell‘s “The House” to critics in advance, and it still bombed pretty hard.
Of course, the fix here is easy: make good movies, and part of that includes not rushing movies to hit release dates. Obviously, not every movie is going to turn out great, and sometimes there are conflicts and clashes that naturally arise out of the creative process. But if more care is put into the films across the board, chances are box office revenues will follow, the bottom line will be better for studios, and audiences will feel more confident about spending their hard earned money at the multiplex rather than staying home and watching Netflix. It’s not rocket science.
