The Melania documentary has made history with the largest disparity between critics and fans ever recorded on Rotten Tomatoes.
With a 94-point gap between the “Tomatometer” critics’ score and the “Popcornmeter” audience number, Rotten Tomatoes confirmed the odd distinction to Rolling Stone on Thursday.
The $75 million movie, funded by MAGA-friendly billionaire Jeff Bezos, has earned scathing reviews from critics. The Guardian called watching the “chillingly vain” film “endless hell.” In a review in The Independent, one critic wrote that the first lady is “only depicted preening and scowling” in the “vapid” documentary, which is described as a “void of pure nothingness” and a “ghastly bit of propaganda.”
And the Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon called the film an “unbelievable abomination.”
Nonetheless, fans of MAGA and Mrs. Trump have stepped up to hand the Brett-Ratner directed film over $7 million in ticket sales—an impressive haul for a documentary but not when you consider the $35 million marketing spend.
To be sure, box-office expert and former IndieWire Editor Tom Brueggemann claimed there were signs of “fake ticket sales” in a Substack post, reporting that “industry sources say there were signs that blocks of tickets were purchased for the weekend, then distributed to senior citizen homes, Republican activists, other interested parties for free to help boost audiences.”
However the sales came about, the film holds a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ fan-scoring feature Popcornmeter, despite its 5% critics’ score. The Popcornmeter apparently verifies that the viewers contributing have actually purchased tickets to see the film. A spokesperson for the site said, “There has been NO manipulation on the audience reviews for the Melania documentary.”
Rolling Stone notes there are several films scored on Rotten Tomatoes that cater to conservative audiences, which also have notable disparities between critic and fan reception, like Dennis Quaid’s 2024 Reagan biopic and Daily Wire mockumentary Am I Racist?
