Rotten Tomatoes to issue “verified” badges to combat review troll activity

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

As part of their effort to combat "bad actors" and online trolls that abuse the site's public review system, critic aggregator and movie website Rotten Tomatoes is introducing a new plan of action that will hopefully minimize "uninformed" reviews of films. The new feature has been dubbed verified ratings and reviews, a feature that will create a separate audience score hailing from confirmed ticket holders for upcoming films.

Now, before anyone starts flipping tables, all visitors to the Rotten Tomatoes site will still be given the ability to rate and review movies, with all reviews remaining public for site visitor consideration. However, the verified audience score will now be listed as the primary rating on the film's default page, with audience scores now being moved to an accessible "All Audience" tab that can be viewed at a user's own discretion. In other words, ratings bombarded with negative feedback prior to a film's public release will be hidden until you decide to reveal the "tainted" score.

Much like Twitter's blue check mark, the new system will give a clear indication of who's been verified and who hasn't. Verified user written reviews will also be marked, letting the public know that the content is perhaps more reliable than your garden variety troll attack.

The process to become verified will launch on May 23 (today), with members of the site being able to opt in to getting their reviews "verified" once they've proven that a ticket has been purchased via Fandango, the parent of Rotten Tomatoes. Once a ticket is purchased, and the transaction is confirmed, the user will receive a push notification after their scheduled screening of the film. Verified users will then send their review to RT, via Fandango, and await posting on the main site.

The effort to minimize troll-like reviews begins today, as Rotten Tomatoes will now display the "verified" review score next to the film on the Fandango app, right alongside the film's critical freshness rating. The new system will be applied only to new films going forward. So, if you're thinking about getting verified, then going back to dunk on CAPTAIN MARVEL, yet again, you're out of luck. Furthermore, it's been stated that companies like AMC Theaters, Regal and Cinemark Theaters are also looking to join the new program by the end of this year.

"We think this was the next place to add more credibility to our scores," says Fandango chief marketing officer Lori Pantel. "One of the added values of verified is that it could dissuade what we call 'bad actors' from commenting on a film that they may not have even seen."

Rotten Tomatoes' new initiative is bound to rub some users the wrong way, but what's the alternative? Like it or not, some more casual moviegoers often use RT numbers as a way to gauge a film's quality pre-launch. And during a time when misinformation runs rampant across the net, a newer, more "vetted" review system might be exactly what stems the tide against honest opinions and those simply looking to bring a good film down.

What do you think of Rotten Tomatoes' new review system? Sound off in the comments section below!