The American motion picture studio Marvel Studios, has produced numerous superhero fiction that exceeded billions of dollars, which include the "X-Men", "Spider-Man", and "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) multi-film franchises.
But not all fans are fond with everything Marvel is doing, including with "Captain Marvel", which is the twenty-first film in the MCU, and its first female-led superhero movie.
And here, online trolls have spread negative comments, some of them are misogynistic, on the aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
As a result, the popular service is forced to disable user comments before any film premieres in theaters, saying that the move is in part a bid to crack down on what it calls "non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership."
People can only comment and rate a movie, after it is released in theaters.
In its blog post, Rotten Tomatoes also said that it would no longer display a so-called 'Want to See' percentage score during a movie's pre-release period.
Rotten Tomatoes also tweaks its system that is used to poll moviegoers about their interest in upcoming releases.
The service has received many criticisms due to its 'Tomatometer', which is a barometer that reduces hundreds of professional reviews into simple "fresh" or "rotten" grades. Rotten Tomatoes also drew criticism for appearing to revolve around reviews by white men.
Rotten Tomatoes has become the hallmark of whether a movie is good or bad. And with the internet, things can quickly spread though word of mouth.
As a result, the site can play a huge decisive role in a movie's performance at the box office.
This is why many Hollywood executives were against the site's influence, with one anonymous top film executive even determined to destroy the site.
Paul Yanover, the president of Fandango, the ticketing service that owns Rotten Tomatoes, said that:
Captain Marvel which is slated to debut on March 8, is just one of the several high-profile movie to come under attack by trolls.
Previously, negative responses to 2017's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" on Rotten Tomatoes were linked to a wider fan-driven backlash that many critics called toxic. Kelly Marie Tran, a Vietnamese-American actress who made her franchise debut in the film, was even forced to wipe her social media accounts in 2018 after months of misogynistic and racist harassment.
A similar thing happened to the female-led "Ghostbusters" reboot. The film was plagued by trolls with racist and misogynistic harassment against Leslie Jones. The comedian said at the time that she was "in a personal hell" over the online abuse.
Another example was was seen on "Black Panther," where trolls said that the black superhero was Marvel’s attempt to "shove SJW [Social Justice Warrior] messages down our throats." They also said that "minorities ... should stay that way."
To prevent similar things from happening again, Rotten Tomatoes' move to disable comments is its battle against "review bombing" that is part of the company's push to make audience feedback more "useful."
