AceShowbiz - Filmmakers behind John Travolta's new movie Gotti are hitting back against critics' negative reviews.

The movie has received a zero per cent score on film website Rotten Tomatoes and has been panned by critics. However, a message from a spokesperson on the movie's official Twitter page is urging moviegoers to see it.

"Audiences loved Gotti but critics don't want you to see it...," the message reads. "The question is why??? Trust the people and see it for yourself!".

The film only grossed $1.6 million (£1.2 million) on the North American box office during its opening weekend, June 15-17 and several critics have blasted the movie, which stars John Travolta as the late leader of the Gambino crime family in New York City.

"His performance ain't lousy, but the movie that surrounds it is, and it's almost laughable to see this iconic star trying so hard on behalf of a project that is so compromised in its intentions,” a review from Variety read.

Critics at the New York Post also called it "the worst mob movie ever".

Despite the negative reviews of the movie, Travolta's wife Kelly Preston, who plays Gotti's wife Victoria, has revealed the late mob boss' family is thrilled with the movie.

"We had a screening with the family yesterday," she told U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America earlier this month. "It was the entire family, all of their friends, everybody who knew John Gotti, who (still) knows the family, and it was amazing, the reception and the reaction was absolutely (amazing).

"It was the greatest gift I could ever be given as an actor of how they felt about the film".