MovieChat Forums > Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) Discussion > I suspect imdb is manipulating the numbe...

I suspect imdb is manipulating the numbers

posted 11 years ago by don-249
79 replies | jump to latest

I saw the movie last night with friends. We all agreed the movie was so poor that we walked out midway. I'm only embarrassed to admit that we weren't the first to leave. We stuck it out longer than it deserved. We didn't get our time wasted back but at least we got our money back.

Now I suspect imdb is manipulating the ratings. This movie just isn't anywhere close to 7+. Imdb has given the movie's home page a special background and some other special treatments so obviously money changed hands. I can't help thinking the rating numbers are tied to that as well.

Is there a more objective movie review site than imdb? I realize movie reviews are inherently subjective but I'd be happy with a crowd-sourced rating score that people are confident isn't being manipulated.

[–] ur0208162 11 years ago

Is there a more objective movie review site than imdb?

Just click to get the broken down statistics of the voters right here on IMDb.

Go to the 'Top 1000 voters' and check that score. That will give you a much more subjective rating of the film even though the sample is small.

You'll see they gave this film a 5.5 which is seems a lot closer to your assessment (I haven't seen the film).

People seem to throw out '10' stars willy nilly so the IMDb rating is always too high in my opinion. I have rated over 1,400 films here and have only given out a total of ten '10' ratings in 14 years as a member.

[–] ur42097132 11 years ago

Wouldn't it be best to focus on the rating from their own demographic? Maybe someone ranked in the top 1000 would relate those ratings but it would be a poor reference group.

Assuming the person is a 30 year old male from US, that should, be much better as a rating than top 1000. Consistent critics, reviewers and so on become enveloped in a mindset of elitism and hold expectations (personal biases) that seem non-existent to the class of status of critic. As a critic, this would be good to find a reference point with peers but most are not critics.

[–] ur20784679 11 years ago

I don't think its IMDB. I think in the beginning, it is the studios that manipulate the ratings. They know IMDB ratings influence viewers and it would just be stupid to not direct a small part of that multimillion dollar advertising budget to having interns build hype on message boards.

“There are no ordinary moments. There is always something going on.” – Peaceful Warrior

[–] ur32862852 11 years ago

I'm only embarrassed to admit that we weren't the first to leave.

You should also be embarrassed that you asked for - and got, apparently - your money back.
You know you're screwing the theater right? Not the distributor. Way to stick it to the man, don!

[–] ur0942820 11 years ago

Short term, people asking for their money back will hurt the theater but long term, theater profits will rise if they replace the movie with something that will draw in crowds. When we attended, there were only 20 people in the entire theater. So evidently word had spread already. After the four of us walked out, there were only 12 left.

[–] benGsboat 11 years ago

It made the same amount on Xmas day that it made on its opening Wednesday ($8.1m) a week earlier. In fact, look at its Fri Sat and Sun grosses (8.7, 9.5 and 8.4)
That doesn't sound like it's suffering from bad word of mouth. Would have dropped a lot more than that, even during that first weekend (especially if the Wed and Thurs crowds said how 'bad' it was

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] freebird1987 11 years ago

Movie theaters do not do refunds.

[–] don-249 11 years ago

When I asked for a refund, the manager didn't argue. The only thing she mentioned was that it was a little more complex to process a refund since I had bought the tickets through fandango.com. It took her about 3 minutes and I got back the total fandango purchase price including their service charge.

[–] freebird1987 11 years ago

Liar is lying.

[–] don-249 11 years ago

The producers definitely give a damn about imdb's ratings. Even Amazon displays imdb's ratings on the Amazon movie web pages.

[–] pennycentury 11 years ago

The producers definitely give a damn about imdb's ratings. Even Amazon displays imdb's ratings on the Amazon movie web pages.

Amazon OWNS IMDb. It's called cross-promotion.

"Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers." - Murphy's Law

[–] TheBeardedWonder 11 years ago

"Have you ever heard of...synergy?"

"What? Do you wanna just sit around and be wrong?" - Liz Lemon

[–] cuchelo1 11 years ago

"Have you ever heard of...synergy?"

It was *almost* worth sitting through this total P.O.S. movie just for that. Thanks!!!

"Falling feels like flying... until you hit the ground."-Tom McRae

[–] carlgcarlson3 10 years ago

You're a total P.O.S. Movie

[–] pd78w 11 years ago

Is there a more objective movie review site than imdb?

Try http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ to get a more balanced perspective.

[–] premium_to_the_max 11 years ago

I don't think the numbers are manipulated. If you look through the movie ratings on this site there are plenty of dumb movies with much higher ratings than good movies. It seems like any new movie that comes out has high ratings for some reason. The numbers are not manipulated by the website, people just have bad taste.

[–] pilarinhavana 11 years ago

I think if there's a conspiracy...which I don't...it could just as well be the FoxNews fans who don't like their beloved Aussie Rupert Murdock and his "news" channel being made fun of and are coming here and trashing it.

[–] RiseUpMegalon 11 years ago

Really? We're getting Fox News thrown into the mix?

[–] pilarinhavana 11 years ago

No, I'm just pointing out the ridiculousness thinking there's a "conspiracy" of any sorts behind this movie.

[–] Hensmon 11 years ago

Hardly a conspiracy theory you moron. Increased social stature and presence which ultimately translates to increased money. Have you never heard of people buying likes on facebook? Or followers on twitter? This 'theory' is exactly the same thing. It's called business, and you clearly are living in a fantasy world if you think IMDB is beyond the influence of money or that it has no relevance or effect on the various markets involved.

I'm not saying I agree with the OP, but IMDB's dealings/involvement with the project is more than obvious, so I would say it is a fair and educated assumption. Besides, the movie was so god dam terrible, it's a miracle that it's got higher than a 5.

[–] 11 years ago

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