According to Rotten Tomatoes — at least for now — Captain Marvel has rapidly gone from highly anticipated to barely anticipated at all.
As of the publication of this article, the film review site still shows the comic book blockbuster with a miserable “Want To See” score of 27%. Here’s a screenshot before that score likely disappears altogether:
[[{“fid”:”43527″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false}},”attributes”:{“class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]
So why are so many people apparently uninterested in seeing the latest installment from Marvel Studios? Either blame it on the film’s star, Brie Larson, or on “right-wing” trolls, depending on your pollitical persuasion.
The film’s “Want To See” score began plummeting soon after Larson (who plays the lead role of Carol Danvers) began making politically and ideologically charged statements during promotional events in early February. As The Daily Wire‘s Emily Zanotti reported, Larson has vowed to make sure the film’s press junket is not “overwhelmingly white male.”
“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male,” Larson told Marie Claire UK‘s Keah Brown in early February. “So, I spoke to Dr. Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who put together a study to confirm that. Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive. After speaking with you, the film critic Valerie Complex and a few other women of colour, it sounded like across the board they weren’t getting the same opportunities as others. When I talked to the facilities that weren’t providing it, they all had different excuses.”
In its coverage of the story, the New York Post noted about the USC study that it “found that of the 100 highest-grossing movies in 2017, 67 percent of top critics were white males, less than 25 percent were white women, while 10 percent were men of color and 2.5 percent were women of color.”
Larson also told Entertainment Tonight that she met with the studio about making “Captain Marvel” a “big feminist movie.” “I had a meeting with Marvel and what we discussed is they wanted to make a big feminist movie,” she said.
Larson’s’ comments prompted instant backlash online, particularly over at Rotten Tomatoes, where the film’s “Want To See” score began dropping precipitously — triggering critics on the Left to blame the Right for the bad buzz, as Twitchy noted.
In apparent response, as pointed out by Den of Geek, Rottten Tomatoes has announced that it’s going to put an end to the “Want To See” score altogether. The site is also “disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date,” explaining, “Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership.”
The site made the announcements in a post Monday that included these updates:
As of February 25, we will no longer show the ‘Want to See’ percentage score for a movie during its pre-release period. Why you might ask? We’ve found that the ‘Want to See’ percentage score is often times confused with the ‘Audience Score’ percentage number. (The ‘Audience Score’ percentage, for those who haven’t been following, is the percentage of all users who have rated the movie or TV show positively – that is, given it a star rating of 3.5 or higher – and is only shown once the movie or TV show is released.)
What you will now see at the top of a movie or TV page, once it has been released, is this:
[[{“fid”:”43531″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“2”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false}},”attributes”:{“class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”2″}}]]
What else are we doing? We are disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date. Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature for now is the best course of action. Don’t worry though, fans will still get to have their say: Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have.
Related: WATCH: NRA Sends Oscars Message To ‘Hypocritical’ Celebrities From ‘Real Hollywood Hero’