Consensus Pays: Examining Cross-Platform Rating Divergence

Prior studies have examined the effects of UGC on consumer behavior (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006), film success in terms of revenue (Duan et al., 2008), or model bias in reputation systems (Wu et al., 2018). Yet, none have isolated the comparative roles of national versus international platforms in this context. Against this backdrop, the present study compares the French platform Allociné with the global benchmark IMDb and sets out to: (i) compare user-generated reviews between a national (Allociné) and international (IMDb) platform, (ii) trace the economic stakes of any divergence, and (iii) the cultural conditions under which those gaps widen or shrink. To conduct the research, a matched, cross-sectional dataset of 2,296 French and US feature films released between 2010 and 2020 was gathered. After harmonizing all rating scales, I carried out paired t-tests, Bland-Altman plots, ordinary least squares and quantile regressions, and a film-level linear mixed-effects model with random intercepts. Results indicate that platform context matters. The same films often receive different ratings across the two platforms. This gap between platform ratings narrows only for the very best-reviewed films, and critics magnify these platform differences further. Higher intrinsic quality and larger grosses foster convergence, halving the gap in the upper quartile, whereas every additional point of spectator disagreement is associated with a 36 % drop in worldwide gross for lower-earning films. Yet, against the theoretical premise of cultural proximity theory, there is virtually no domestic uplift on Allociné according to the spectator ratings for French movies (an uplift of 0.09). Rather, according to the mixed-effects results, U.S. films receive a 0.58-point lift on Allociné compared to a -0.64-point more negative rating it gets on IMDb. This means that there is virtually no home bias on Allociné, but rather a preference for U.S. films. Taken together, the findings portray rating sites as distinct attention markets whose biases can erase or create commercial value and contrast cultural proximity theory. Shrinking cross-platform gaps may therefore offer distributors a route to higher revenues and provide scholars with preliminary findings on how platform ratings diverge.