Rotten Tomatoes, the Internet film site originally devoted to rating films based on the cliché of throwing tomatoes at terrible stage performers, has now expanded to reviews, info and basic movie news. Started in 1998 to bring a variety of critic’s views together to rate various films, Rotten Tomatoes was sold to Imagine Games Network (IGN) Entertainment in 2004. IGN is a website devoted to multimedia news, reviews and video games. In 2005 IGN was bought out by Fox Interactive Media. Fox Interactive is owned by, none other than the big six company News Corporation.
What’s interesting is that the Rotten Tomatoes website only references a relationship with IGN Entertainment. By doing this, the site is able to present the illusion that it still may be an independent site with a relationship to another smaller named company. If the site were to openly reference its ultimate relationship with Fox or News Corporation, it would seem like just another gimmick film site.
Huge media corporations purposefully purchase small, independent companies, not only for financial gain but also independent credibility. The only problem is, once these small companies have been acquired they are slowly revamped to push big media’s agenda and push the independent perspective out, while the small company’s original followers are none the wiser.
One last coincidental tidbit, this weeks #1 Top Box Office listing (which is the very first film title listed on the upper left hand corner of the screen) is Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Its rating on the “tomatometer” is an average 5.1 out of 10. Interestingly, this film was produced through 20th Century Fox. News Corp is actually paying to own bad ratings for a film under their own umbrella. It just goes to prove, there really is no such thing as rotten publicity.
Indy film review sites I like:
