The folks behind "Gotti" are wearing bad reviews as a badge of honor.

The mafia biopic, starring John Travolta as the former head of the Gambino crime family, opened over the weekend to dismal box-office returns — and a zero percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.

"That the long-gestating crime drama 'Gotti' is a dismal mess comes as no surprise. What does shock is just how multifaceted a dismal mess it is," says The New York Times.

But the movie's distributors, Vertical Entertainment and MoviePass Ventures, have apparently decided to punch back at the detractors with a tough-talking tweet.

And a new trailer ups the ante: "Audiences loved it ... Critics put out the hit ... Who would you trust more? Yourself or a troll behind a keyboard?"

How often do film distributors turn critical pans into a marketing strategy? And will other studios follow suit, perhaps in a similar bid to gin up populist resentment of the media?

We shall see. 

P.S. Here's a fun fact: "Gotti" was directed by Kevin Connolly, the actor who played the Hollywood hotshot Eric "E" Murphy on HBO's "Entourage."