Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company, Versant, denies that “Melania” viewer scores on the review aggregation website have been tampered with. The Amazon MGM-backed documentary had an audience score of 99% and a dismal critic score of 7% as of Friday morning, the second weekend of release for Melania. The large difference between the scores has many people wondering if MAGA-supported bots are being used to boost viewer scores.
“There was no bot manipulation in the viewer reviews of the ‘Melania’ documentary,” Barsant said in a statement to Variety. “Reviews that appear on Popcorn Meter are verified reviews, meaning we have verified that you purchased a movie ticket.”
Jimmy Kimmel questioned the documentary’s audience score in a Feb. 4 monologue, saying, “As of tonight, Melania has a 5% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s very low. To put it in perspective, it’s 1% lower than Gigli.” “Melania” has a 99% positive audience score, 1% higher than “The Godfather.” And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with it. ”
Kimmel added, “We need to get to the bottom of it. Send in Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI! Seize ticket machines, popcorn buckets, and box office receipts at every complex across America!”
According to Rolling Stone, “Melania Trump’s new documentary has become the film with the biggest gap in ratings between critics and audiences in Rotten Tomatoes history.”
“Melania,” directed by Brett Ratner, follows Melania Trump during the 20 days leading up to her husband Donald’s second inauguration as president. The film made $7 million at the domestic box office, a strong start for a documentary film, but not the best start for a film that Amazon bought for $40 million and spent $35 million bringing to market.
As reported by Variety, the audience for “Melania” during its opening weekend was 72% female and 83% over the age of 45. Nearly 75% of ticket buyers were white, according to PostTrak data.
