IMDb updates rating system for ‘The Little Mermaid’ after negative ‘review bombing’
Although the live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid" has a favorable 7.0 (weighted) average score, more than 39 percent of the ratings are 1 star, the lowest possible score.
Disney’s live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” has finally found its way to the big screen, but not without critics seemingly trying to tank its success with an influx of “review bombing.”
“Review bombing” occurs when a production is bombarded with negative comments from site users who own several accounts or use bots to open new ones.
According to The Washington Post, the film garnered $118 million domestically over Memorial Day weekend – ranking it as the fifth-highest-grossing movie of the holiday weekend – and received 41,000 user ratings on the Internet Movie Database since its premiere on Friday.
Variety reported that although the movie has a favorable 7.0 (weighted) average score, more than 39 percent of its ratings are 1 star, the lowest possible score. The influx of negative reviews led IMDb to revise its rating system.
IMDb has posted an alert on the movie’s rating page stating that the site’s rating algorithm has discovered odd voting activity on the title. “To preserve the reliability of our rating system,” it says, “an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.”
The FAQ section of IMDb mentions that “not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating,” though it doesn’t detail how the firm handles the situation.
“The Little Mermaid” remake has been the subject of racial criticism for several years, dating to when Halle Bailey — a Black actress and singer — was cast as Ariel.
According to The Post, fans attribute the alleged review bombing to Bailey’s casting, calling on IMDb to stop this “disgusting” and “pathetic” practice and to balance the negative and positive scores.
“Black Panther,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” were also subjected to review bombing, which appeared to be related to their racially diverse casting.
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