Rotten Tomatoes Research Articles

A Novel Method of Network Text Analysis

This paper describes a novel method of network text analysis, one that involves a new approach to 1) the selection of words from a text, 2) the aggregation of those words into higher-order concepts, 3) the kind of the relationship that establishes statements from pairs of concepts and 4) the extraction of meaning from the text network formed by these statements. After describing the method, I apply it to a sample of the seven most recent winners of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay―Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Milk, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, Midnight in Paris, and Django Unchained. Consistent with prior research, I demonstrate that structure encodes meaning. Specifically, it is shown that statements associated with a text network’s least constrained nodes are consistent with themes in the films’ synopses found on Wikipedia, the International Movie Database, and Rotten Tomatoes.

Predicting Movie Prices Through Dynamic Social Network Analysis

This paper explores the effectiveness of social network analysis and sentiment analysis in predicting trends. Our research focuses on predicting the success of new movies over their first four weeks in the box office after opening. Specifically, we try to predict prices on the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), a prediction market on movie gross income, and predict the ratio of gross income to production budget.When predicting movie stock values on HSX, we consider two different approaches. One approach is to predict the daily changes in prices. This means we would be predicting a mix of not only how well we think the movie will perform, but also how we think other people think the movie will perform. Our second approach is to predict the final closing price of the stock, which will be how much the movie actually grosses in the box office after four weeks. In this approach, the daily prices provide feedback with the crowd's constantly revising estimate of the final performance of the movie. Finally, we try to classify movies in three groups depending on whether they gross less than, just over, or a lot more than their production cost.For our prediction we gather three types of metrics. (1) Web Metrics are movie-rating metrics from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes as well as box office performance data from Box Office Mojo and movie quotes from HSX. (2) SNA Metrics Web and blog betweenness represent the general buzz on the movie from the web and from bloggers. We hypothesize that they will be useful because they are unconscious signals about a movie's popularity. (3) To determine the general sentiment about the movies, we gather posts from IMDb forums to generate Sentiment Metrics for positivity and negativity based on the discussion in the forums. Our preliminary results employing different prediction methods such as multilinear and non-linear regression combining our three types of independent variables are encouraging, as we have been able to predict final box office return at least as good as the participants in the HSX prediction market.

Rotten Tomatoes in the Field of Popular Cultural Production

Rotten Tomatoes est un site Internet qui rassemble des critiques de films de sources journalistiques et non professionnelles et qui offre des ressources complètes aussi bien pour l’utilisateur ordinaire que pour le mordu de cinéma. Cet article examine comment Rotten Tomatoes fonctionne comme un exemple de critique cinématographique « en ligne » dans un champ de production de la culture populaire. Rotten Tomatoes se situe aussi bien à l’intérieur du contexte d’une entreprise de critique cinématographique que dans le réseau global des conglomérats médiatiques. Je propose de considérer que l’assujettissement de la critique cinématographique aux impératifs commerciaux a pour résultat la renégociation de la fonction traditionnelle de la critique et de l’implication populaire dans les communautés de cinéphiles. Rotten Tomatoes nous fournit une étude de cas sur la façon dont le discours populaire fonctionne dans l’industrie culturelle contemporaine marquée par la convergence.

Does Rotten Tomatoes Spoil Users? Examining Whether Social Media Features Foster Participatory Culture

Participatory culture, as conceived by Henry Jenkins, existed prior to the advent of the World Wide Web. Now, due to the increasing popularity of social media tools, participatory culture is flourishing online as well. One popular movie review website, Rotten Tomatoes, demonstrates this trend. The website includes a suite of interactive, social media tools. Based on an ethnographic observation, participatory culture was seen to be occurring on the site. The power of the website to provide an open and accessible means of cultural dialogue and to encourage civic participation can be observed particularly when online user activity moves beyond discussions of film aesthetics to encompass larger societal and cultural issues. However, despite the site’s intriguing potential, there are various flaws observed that prevent a greater flourishing of participatory culture.

Eye of the Beholden

Eye of the Beholden

The harmful fungi of tomatoes and their problem to the processor

Tomatoes are the most valuable vegetable crop for processing grown in the United States; $125,426,000 worth in 1961 compared to $49,577,000 for snap beans and $43,554, 000 for green, shelled peas, which were second and third in total value. More than twice as many tons of tomatoes (4,220,500) than sweet corn (1,714,370) were produced fromi less than two-thirds the harvested acreage. The agricultural production of tomatoes is an important segment of many states' economies, especially of California, Indiana., New Jersey, Ohio and some others. Like many plants, it suffers from numerous fungus-caused diseases, but the tomato's especially sueculent fruit (technically a berry) makes it even more susceptible than most to infections of fungi. At least 20 different species cause economically significant diseases. The disease fungi enter generally through sonme wound or other opening, although some are capable of penetrating the epidermis. They then extensively reproduce, causing a characteristic symptom of infection of the causal fungi. This ranges from a slight wilting or curling of the leaves to total defoliation, from small rotten spots on the stems or surface of the fruit to total infection and destruction of the whole tomato. The chara eteristics of each disease are specifie, and a person with proper training can recognize themn at an stage early enough to start a preventive or control program. The processor is naturally interested in the effectiveness of this field control program, for on it depends to a large extent the yield of the crop and the delivered quality of the raw stock to the processing plant. Rotten and moldy tomatoes cannot be used for processing; the conscientious processor has elaborate sorting techniques to ensure that thev do not contaminate the product. The Federal Food and Dirug Administration (FDA)

An investigation of some tomato diseases

Various of tomato fruits and certain diseases of the stems of tomato plants have been investigated. These fruit rots commonly occur both on imported and upon home-grown fruit and are caused by several different fungi about the identity of which there has been much uncertainty. The fungi isolated from rotten tomatoes have been compared with authentic cultures of certain presumably identical or closely related fungi from the United States. One of the rots is caused by Phoma destructiva, the British form of which is identical with that from America. Another of these rots is produced by a fungus which has hitherto passed in this country under the name of Mycosphaerella citrullina, but which is certainly not identical with the American fungus of that name. The British fungus which has hitherto been mistaken for this and which causes tomato stem “canker” as well as a fruit rot, appears to be identical with Diplodina Lycopersici Hollós which name also replaces Phoma Lycopersici Cooke. It has been considered advisable to amplify Hollós' description and the fungus is therefore named Diplodina Lycopersici (Cooke) Hollós, emend. Brooks and Searle. Another pycnidial fungus, found only once as the cause of a tomato rot is associated with an Alternaria stage, and the name proposed for this fungus is Phoma alternariaceum Brooks and Searle. Finally, various strains of Gloeosporium and Colletotrichum parasitic on tomatoes have been isolated. One of these fungi Is identical with the American Colletotrichum phomoides (Sacc.) Chester, and probably all of these forms are thus best grouped. The desirability of undertaking cultural studies of fungi belonging to such genera as Phoma, Diplodina, and Colletotrichum as an aid in the diagnosis of species, is emphasized.