Earlier this year, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson started making headlines after she complained about the lack of diversity in movie critics. While some people took issue with Larson’s comments, many people agreed with her that something needed to be done about this problem.
Now it seems like Rotten Tomatoes has attempted to address this issue. Deadline has just reported that Rotten Tomatoes has recently added 600 new critics, deciding that adding more reviewers will give underrepresented perspectives more exposure.
At least 60% of these new critics are working as freelancers, and it is estimated that 10% of them publish their movie reviews on platforms such as YouTube or podcasts. Of the 600 newly added critics. 55% of them are women. However it is unknown what percentage of the new critics are LGBTQA members, what the racial make up currently looks like.
Adding people is not the only change that Rotten Tomatoes has done to their platform. The company has also promised to give $100,000 to their grant pledge meant to provide reviewers with funds to attend upcoming film festivals. Whether or not Rotten Tomatoes actions will have an impact is still unknown so we’ll have to wait and see, but right now we can say that these issues are getting attention.