Ten days ago, Christian Franklin had already sensed that "The Dark City" could pose a threat to "The Shawshank Redemption." Subconsciously, he also believed that this film's reputation might remain exceptionally strong, unlike other newly released films that typically see their ratings plummet after the first weekend.
Since becoming the head of the "The Shawshank Redemption" discussion group on IMDb, Christian Franklin noticed that every time a new Murphy Stanton film was released, it seemed to pose a threat to "The Shawshank Redemption." For instance, "Man of Steel" had once occupied the top spot on the IMDb Top 250 for a long time. If it weren't for the tireless efforts of Christian and other "The Shawshank Redemption" fans who relentlessly rated it low, it's hard to say if "Man of Steel" would have dropped in the rankings.
Despite their efforts, before "The Dark City" premiered, "Man of Steel" still held an 8.9 rating, ranking fifth.
Christian Franklin, while a devoted fan of "The Shawshank Redemption," knew well that the film's top position on IMDb's Top 250 was largely due to their fan-driven idolization campaign. Once surpassed, reclaiming the top spot would be extremely difficult.
As one of the initiators of this idolization campaign, Christian had been closely monitoring IMDb's rating changes. As soon as "The Dark City" was released, he targeted Murphy Stanton's film again.
Through years of observation, Christian saw that among current Hollywood directors, there were few whose abilities surpassed Murphy Stanton's. However, combining commercial success with artistic merit as seamlessly as Stanton did was exceedingly rare. Even the few directors who managed it couldn't match Stanton's works.
On a fan-rated site like IMDb, niche films rarely make it to the forefront of the Top 250 list. This meant that art films, despite critical acclaim, seldom appeared at the top of this list. The leading spots were typically occupied by films with a broader audience.
Mainstream films easily become standard popcorn flicks. While these can be box office hits, they rarely break into the top tier of such lists. Thus, Christian targeted Murphy Stanton, who consistently produced exceptional commercial films.
Starting ten days ago, Christian had been mobilizing "The Shawshank Redemption" fans to rate "The Dark City" low. Their tireless efforts, combined with other fans who disliked the film, had managed to drop its rating from 9.9 to 9.7. Now, it was not far from "The Shawshank Redemption's" 9.2 rating.
But Christian knew that merely reducing the rating was insufficient to restore "The Shawshank Redemption" to its top position. Given Murphy Stanton's vast fan base and the numerous viewers captivated by "The Dark City," their numbers were simply too small.
The scale of action had to be expanded. Christian was confident that with more people rating "The Dark City" one star, they could, as they did with "Man of Steel," bring it down.
Sitting at his computer, Christian made a decision after a few minutes of thought. He closed the IMDb page, opened his email, and sent out a group message urging members of the "The Shawshank Redemption" discussion group to intensify their efforts to downrate "The Dark City."
Email alone wasn't enough. After sending the emails, Christian picked up the phone and began making calls. He had contacts with many leaders of "The Shawshank Redemption" fan organizations, who had been instrumental in the original idolization campaign.
"Koska, rally everyone around you to rate 'The Dark City' one star, quickly!"
"Alexandra, mobilize your friends..."
IMDb was an open platform. Fans could rate a film highly or lowly. To ensure fairness, IMDb's rating changes and vote counts were transparent to users.
In just two days, Justin, one of the deputy leaders of the Murphy Stanton discussion group on IMDb, noticed an unusual change in "The Dark City's" rating. The film's rating had dropped from 9.7 to 9.6, contrary to the stable decline observed previously.
Justin checked IMDb's statistics and found that the one-star votes for "The Dark City" had increased from 1.2% to 2.6%. It was clear that someone was manipulating the ratings.
Even a fool could see there was a problem.
Was it the same culprits again? Justin instantly thought of "Man of Steel." Back then, Murphy's film had enjoyed both critical and commercial success, dominating IMDb's Top 250 for a long time before inexplicably dropping. Initially, Justin and others, including Daisy, didn't understand why until they discovered that someone had manipulated the ratings by mass downvoting with legitimate user accounts, driving "Man of Steel" down.
Eventually, they identified "The Shawshank Redemption" as the likely perpetrator, as they benefited the most.
Could it be them again? With the old grudge still unresolved, had they come back for more?
Justin pondered for a while, then called Daisy. After a long wait, she finally picked up amidst a cacophony of popping sounds.
"What's up?" Daisy's voice was loud. "I'm at the club practicing shooting. If it's not urgent, call me later!"
"It's urgent, boss!" Justin quickly replied. "Very urgent! 'The Dark City' is being sabotaged on IMDb!"
"What?"
The noise suggested Daisy was finding a quiet spot. After a while, the popping sounds ceased, and Daisy's voice came through clearly. "What's going on? Tell me."
Justin succinctly explained his suspicions.
After a brief silence, Daisy's voice came back. "Contact all the fan organization leaders you can. I'm heading home now! Those bastards think they can mess with us!"
In less than half an hour, Justin and Daisy had gathered numerous leaders of Murphy's fan organizations for a heated discussion via a video conference software. Even leaders of several of Murphy's black fan organizations joined in.
CAA quickly relayed the information to Murphy, who not only did not oppose but encouraged stirring the pot further.
For the film to maintain its momentum in the coming screenings, it needed substantial buzz.
Thus, a fan war centered on IMDb erupted.
With the explosive start of "The Dark City," the film's IMDb rating soared. At its peak, it even reached an astonishing 10. Murphy's fans, almost transformed into fervent devotees, didn't care about the reactions from "The Shawshank Redemption" or "The Godfather" fans, deifying "The Dark City" while subtly disparaging other films.
"The Shawshank Redemption" fans had fought hard to secure the top spot on IMDb's Top 250 and were not willing to give it up easily. Led by Christian Franklin, they continued their previous tactics, rallying all eligible IMDb users to rate "The Dark City" one star, aiming to dethrone it swiftly.
Having spent over a decade in Hollywood, Murphy had amassed a vast fanbase, with numerous die-hard fans like Daisy and Justin. Murphy Stanton fan clubs existed in almost every major city in the U.S. With the leaders' coordination, tens of thousands of fans swarmed "The Shawshank Redemption," determined to lower its rating and ensure it could no longer threaten "The Dark City," even pushing it below "Man of Steel."
Though IMDb's rating system aimed to be relatively fair, the system was still highly manipulable by ordinary fans, even without professional trolls.
Many factors influence IMDb's Top 250 scores, primarily the number of votes.
There's an interesting phenomenon on IMDb: films with only a few dozen votes often have sky-high ratings initially. This high rating usually doesn't last long, raising suspicions that it could be a promotional tactic by the filmmakers.
Hence, IMDb includes vote counts and limits to active users' votes to ensure the Top 250 rankings are as fair and unbiased as possible.
However, these restrictions don't have much impact on films of the caliber of "The Godfather," "The Dark City," and "The Shawshank Redemption."
Imagine the scene: after watching a visually stunning and emotionally charged film like "The Dark City," Murphy's ardent fans, enveloped in euphoria, would struggle to make a sober, rational judgment of the film's quality. The first to rate a film on IMDb are usually its die-hard fans, so it's not surprising that "The Dark City" initially soared to a perfect 10.
Another factor at play is the "collective unconscious." Amidst a chorus of praise or criticism, most people find it hard to stick to their judgment. In the case of "The Dark City," with overwhelming A+ ratings from viewers and rave reviews on IMDb, most people find it difficult to say "no" to it.
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