IMDb states, “An alternative weighting calculation has been applied to preserve the reliability of our rating system.”
Even though most people rated The Little Mermaid at three or below out of 10, the site still displays a user rating of 7.0 for the film. Over 40% of reviewers gave it the lowest possible rating of 1.
According to IMDb, they have found “unusual user voting” for Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, so they have turned to an “alternate weighting calculation” to enhance the movie’s user score artificially.
“Review bombing” refers to a concerted effort to damage a film’s reputation online, and several reputable news outlets have speculated that this may have happened to The Little Mermaid. They argue that the film has been unfairly attacked because of Disney’s choice to hire an African-American actress in the role of Ariel, who was white in the 1989 animated film.
Review bombing by the left also occurs. 2000 Mules by Dinesh D’Souza was given a rating of 5.2%. Unweighted, it has a 6.5% rating.
Amazon’s IMDb displays a weighted average of user ratings for a movie, but the site doesn’t reveal the exact method it employs. They say that they don’t disclose the methodology used to generate the rating to ensure their rating remains effective.
In the case of The Little Mermaid, it seems that the weighted average is considerably more “weighted” than usual. The “unweighted mean” is the statistical average of all user votes displayed by IMDb for every title.
The indicated weighted user rating of 7.0 for the Little Mermaid remake is significantly lower than the “unweighted mean” of 4.6.
But there’s been nothing to suggest racism had anything to do with the film’s poor reception.
The first complete trailer for the film was also a huge flop, with over a million “dislikes” on YouTube in less than a week after its debut at the Oscars in March.
