There's been a lot of brouhaha lately over Rotten Tomatoes and the user-based reviews that audiences are allowed to make on the site using accounts they have signed up for. This week, a Facebook event was set up asking people who are anti-Marvel to make bad reviews for the company's upcoming release Black Panther as soon as they are able. However, it looks as if Rotten Tomatoes is aware of the initiative and has plans to keep an eye on Black Panther as fan and critic reviews roll out. In a statement, Rotten Tomatoes said:
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.
Previously, we learned there was an event being set up online called "Give Black Panther a Rotten Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes." The page has since been shutdown on Facebook, as has the event, but not until news ran around and thousands of people said they were joining the event, whose sole intent seemed to be to mess with the Rotten Tomatoes rating for the Marvel movie. Per what Rotten Tomatoes is saying, however, the platform is aware of the issue and will work to make sure that user reviews related to Black Panther will be fair.
This isn't the first time Down With Disney's Treatment of Franchises and its Fanboys has supposedly struck. The person responsible for the account also took credit for some of the bad reviews on Star Wars: The Last Jedi's Rotten Tomatoes page. It's hard to tell how one person could create enough fake Rotten Tomatoes accounts to create a huge impact on the site, but that could be why an event was created this time around and a multitude of people were asked to participate. The page also has claimed that Disney has somehow caused bad press for DC films, and therefore needs to go down.
That said, Black Panther has already screened, and the early critical reactions have been pretty positive. In addition, the upcoming Marvel flick has also broken records in ticket pre-sales, becoming the highest pre-sale superhero movie of all time. The movie is expected to make upwards of $120 million during its first weekend in theaters, so it's on pace to make a lot of money whether or not it gets successfully sabotaged. You can catch Black Panther when it hits theaters on February 16. You can pre-order tickets for the flick, now.
