For each new film, the AlloCiné team closely examines the notes and reviews posted by spectators. And on very rare occasions, we may observe an unusual distribution of grades… Explanations.
Films currently affected by a message “The distribution of audience ratings for this film is unusual”: Sound of freedom (Sound of Freedom: 7 questions to understand the controversy that accompanies the film’s release in theaters) And Mr. Mayor (Mr. Mayor: beyond the controversy, what do the spectators really think?).
How is the AlloCiné rating calculated?
For each film or series, AlloCiné gives connected users the possibility of giving a rating ranging from 0.5 to 5 and accompanying it (or not) with a review to detail their opinion. For each review posted, an Internet user undertakes to respect the AlloCiné charter, having to ensure in particular that their review does not contain spoilers (or use the Spoilers tag provided for this purpose), rating errors on a film or series (consistency between the number of stars and the review) or off-topic or unargued messages. The author also undertakes not to post a review without having seen the film. Yes, it seems obvious, but believe us, we sometimes have a little doubt when reading the review. The moderation team is looking at all this very carefully.
No need to take out a calculator at home: AlloCiné does not use an arithmetic average to calculate the rating of a film or series, but an algorithm which makes the value of the rating more reliable. This in-house algorithm takes into account numerous parameters which weight the arithmetic average. Each user has a credibility score which depends on their activity on the site.
All ratings are taken into account when calculating the final rating, weighted by each user’s credibility score. Simple, effective.
When a film or series receives an unusual number of ratings, AlloCiné has analysis and alert tools to identify the problem: this choice of algorithmic calculation of the rating thus makes it possible to prevent malicious raters from come to praise or artificially degrade the rating of a film or series on the site. AlloCiné guarantees its users that the algorithm used is reliable, objective and independent.
A message “The distribution of viewer ratings for this film is unusual” appears, what does this mean?
The message “The distribution of viewer ratings for this film is unusual” appears in a very specific case: more than 50% of the ratings given by users to this film are similar to a so-called “extreme” rating, namely a 0.5 or a 5. An objective indicator of a strong polarization of opinions around the film.
And above all, a rarity. Even cinema masterpieces like Forrest Gump or The Godfather, with an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5, do not have such a large proportion of extreme ratings.
Other films, however, have this particularity. Our in-house algorithm balances everything to display the fairest possible score. In a desire for transparency towards our Internet users, however, it seems important to us to inform you of this polarization of opinions by displaying this message on the existence of an unusual distribution of spectator ratings.