Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

IMDb Applies 'Alternate' Rating System After 'The Little Mermaid' Gets Brutally Review-Bombed

IMDb Applies 'Alternate' Rating System After 'The Little Mermaid' Gets Brutally Review-Bombed
Disney

After conservatives flocked to the database to give the live-action remake of 'The Little Mermaid' a 1 out of 10 star rating, IMDb stepped in to change how their rating system works.

Review bombing of movies certainly isn't a new phenomenon, but the racist/anti-woke negative reviews for Disney's live-action version of The Little Mermaid were apparently so egregious IMDb finally decided to implement a new rating system to compensate.

At the top of the reviews page for the film, a message appears which reads:


"Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied."

A screenshot of the IMDb Ratings page for The Little Mermaid, a message appears near the top that reads "Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied."IMDb

The site shows the movie was rated by nearly 54,000 people, 22,000 of which gave the film a 1-star rating.

This would give the movie an unweighted score of 4.6, but IMDb's decision to use a weighted mean score makes the score 7.0.

"not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating. When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system."
"To ensure that our rating mechanism remains effective, we do not disclose the exact method used to generate the rating."

There have been people upset about Halle Bailey, a Black actor, being cast as the fictional mermaid Ariel since the announcement of her casting all the way back in 2019.

There has been a lot of online outrage against the supposedly woke casting and outright racist vitriol aimed at Bailey during that time, so it is unsurprising that the film is being review bombed now that it has been released.

People were absolutely not shocked by this turn of events.






IMDb isn't the only company to attempt to mitigate the effects of review bombing. Amazon decided to implement a 72-hour delay for user reviews on its seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power last year after it noticed a huge discrepancy between critic scores and scores from viewers.

The Rings of Power also faced significant racist backlash online over the decision to cast actors of color to play characters of multiple fantasy races in the series, so there is a distinct theme to the series and movies that get review bombed.

IMDb has not yet commented on its decision to weight the ratings for The Little Mermaid as of time of writing.

More from Entertainment/tv-and-movies

Jeff Ross
Mike Coppola/Variety via Getty Images

Comedian Jeff Ross Shares Photos Of Puffed Up Lip After Allergic Reaction To Ice Cream

Insult comic Jeff Ross revealed he had a medical emergency after a show Saturday night that resulted in a trip to the ER. However, he assured fans the show must go on despite "looking like Mickey Rourke at the end of The Wrestler."

Ross recounted the ordeal on Instagram, showing his swollen lip taking over his face from eating burrata ice cream after his Take a Banana for the Ride show in Mill Valley, California, near San Francisco.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot of Jesse Watters on Fox News
Fox News

Jesse Watters Offers Mind-Numbing New Claim About Masculinity—And Is Instantly Dragged

Problematic Fox News MAGA pundit Jesse Watters has made another bizarre claim about masculinity.

Having already taken exception with eating ice cream, drinking milkshakes, and taking bubble baths, Watters is now targeting tech jobs.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump with the Dodgers
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Leaves Everyone Confused With Hilariously Bizarre Word Salad Tribute To The Dodgers

President Donald Trump was widely mocked after he welcomed the 2024 World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House on Monday with a bizarre, tangential, and rambling speech.

The team arrived at the White House on Monday morning, where Trump, in his remarks, praised two-way star Shohei Ohtani and infielder Mookie Betts. The Dodgers had defeated the New York Yankees in five games to clinch their second World Series title in five seasons.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Roasted After Giving Clunky New Nickname To People Criticizing His Tariffs

President Donald Trump was criticized after he pushed back against critics of his tariffs, coming up with a new nickname for the "weak and stupid" people who oppose them.

The Trump administration’s newly imposed tariffs on imports from various countries have unsettled consumers, triggered a trade war, disrupted global markets, and sparked widespread fears of a potential recession in the U.S. and beyond.

Keep ReadingShow less

Childhood Experiences People Thought Were 'Normal' But Weren't At All

Content Warning: Child neglect, child abuse, narcissism, gaslighting, people-pleasing, and other traumatic childhood experiences

It's important for us to work on ourselves, to continue bettering ourselves throughout our limited time on this earth, and a key way of doing that is acknowledging what we do not know, and working on that.

Keep ReadingShow less