John Travolta’s Gotti was released last weekend and dominated headlines for all the wrong reasons. The film was reviewed by 25 critics on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an astounding freshness rating of 0%.
This dubious distinction marks the third time in Travolta’s career a project of his has earned such an honor.
Dennis Rice (the publicist for Gotti) was quoted in Deadline stating “Clearly, critics are out of touch with the people who actually vote with their pocketbooks.”
Well, that’s not even close to accurate because according to Boxofficemojo.com, Gotti was shown in 500 theaters and only brought in $1.7 million for the weekend. If anything this signals resounding disapproval of the subject matter let alone the apparent problems with the actual film. Well, the marketing team behind Gotti is sticking by their story in true mafioso fashion and released this brand new ad on social media.
Audiences loved Gotti but critics don’t want you to see it… The question is why??? Trust the people and see it for yourself! pic.twitter.com/K6a9jAO4UH
— Gotti Film (@Gotti_Film) June 19, 2018
Apparently, their marketing strategy is straight out of the Gambino crime family manual. Critics are now the enemy, and the people adore Gotti. Never mind the film made hardly any money and was almost beaten by a documentary about Fred Rogers. Never mind the fact they showed the film to only a select few critics which narrows their sample size. So where is the proof which shows critics are the enemy and indicates Gotti as a great film? Well, it appears the basis for this comes from the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Kudos to critic Dan Murrell for stumbling upon thee discrepancies with these audience numbers. Check out this first tweet –
Look how many users left a rating for Gotti. Now look at how many left one for Incredibles 2. These numbers shouldn't be on par with each other. Incredibles 2 did over 100 times the business Gotti did – and opened in 3500 more theaters. pic.twitter.com/oeVFrhnNvv
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
How exactly does a film have nearly the same audience number but opens in 3,000 more theaters and made 180 million last week at the box-office? Look at the second tweet –
Gotti has MORE user ratings than Ocean's 8. Again, a movie that has done MUCH more business, opened in more theaters, and has been out a week longer. pic.twitter.com/SjqE9jFCf1
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
So now we have a film that has made much money than Gotti ever will and has fewer audience reviews? Not Possible! My favorite example is in this last tweet –
For comparison, the film Beirut opened in a similar number of theaters, to a similar amount at the box office. Total user ratings: 708 over two months. Just over 10% what Gotti has received in four days. pic.twitter.com/kvo4a9ETSP
— Dan Murrell (@MurrellDan) June 19, 2018
Two films that opened in the same amount of theaters and the audience numbers are not even close.
It’s pretty clear what the people behind ‘Gotti’ are trying to do. Instead of spending all of this time trying to make critics (who you didn’t screen the movie for) out to be the bad guy, Vertical Entertainment should concentrate on developing a better film which reflects who Gotti was and not what Travolta portrayed him to be.
