IMDb is the world’s largest online database of movies and the people behind them. On the website, we can easily find movie soundtracks, as well as search for CVs of our favorite actor or director. The platform also allows its users to post ratings. Each production can be rated on a scale of one to ten.
Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” bombarded with negative reviews. And sales figures are doing great
In recent years, we have seen an increase in the phenomenon of the so-called review bombing. This is a mass issue of ones, e.g. to films in order to harm a given production and try to distort the average of its ratings. Website users, in order to increase the range of ratings, often set up fictitious accounts or persuade other profile holders on a given portal to write bad reviews. The victim of such action was, among others, “”, the latest Disney production.
The fact that not all viewers will love “The Little Mermaid” in the live-action version was known even before the premiere. It turns out that even in times of crisis, war in Central Europe, the still noticeable effects of the pandemic or facing the climate crisis and the fall of authorities, the color of the skin of actors playing in blockbusters is still an important problem for many people. Equally interesting, the web is boiling with emotions, even when the discussion concerns mythical characters such as elves or mermaids.
The new story of Ariel is not an outstanding masterpiece, as we can read in many reviews. However, it is also not a piece of crap that completely failed – just a decent fairy tale. Asians were reluctant to go to the cinema to see the film, while Americans loved it, which can be seen from the sales figures. Fairy Tale grossed $95.5 million in its opening weekend. Thus, it was surpassed only by “Top Gun: Maverick”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”.
The creators of the largest film database react to the activities of Internet trolls. They’re changing the grading system
However, the online boycott of the new Ariel continued even before the premiere. Social media was even flooded with the hashtag #NotMyAriel, which was supposed to emphasize the reluctance towards Disney’s casting and Halle Bailey as a mermaid. The situation inflamed after the premiere of the fairy tale. People who wished the film and its creators extremely badly began to bombard the IMDb portal with negative reviews. The absurdity reached its zenith when suddenly, out of over 40,000 user ratings, more than 39 percent were ones.
As we read on Deadline, the portal knows how to deal with online trolling. Despite the appearance of review bombing, The Little Mermaid’s profile on IMDb has an overall rating of 7.0 out of 50,000 reviews, which is a really good result. This happened thanks to the vigilance of the website creators.
IMDb detected an irregularity in the ratings on the site in time and decided to remedy it. “We accept and consider all votes submitted by users, but not all votes have the same impact on the final score. If we detect unusual user voting activity, we reserve the right to use alternative calculations,” explains IMDb, but does not specify the exact method used to optimize ratings for the new Disney movie.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
