Rotten Tomatoes denies ‘Melania’ film audience score manipulation claims
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Rotten Tomatoes disputes claims that the audience score for the movie “Melania” was artificially inflated. The film has one of the widest gaps in Rotten Tomatoes history, with a 93 percent point gap between critic and audience scores.
The film follows First Lady Melania Trump during the 20 days before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. It has a 6% critic score and a 99% audience score as of Friday.
Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company, Versant, denied any involvement in the score in a statement to Variety. “No bot manipulation” audience reviews.
“Reviews displayed on Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, which means users are verified to have purchased tickets for the movie,” they added.
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First Lady Melania Trump stands at the New York Stock Exchange on January 28 in New York. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has recorded more than 48,200 user ratings for the movie “Melania” since its release, with the majority of votes given to one star.
The movie currently has a 1.3 star rating on this site. IMDb also posted an “unusual activity” warning under the title, stating “Our ratings mechanism has detected unusual voting activity in this title.”
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Many media outlets noted the huge disparity in online reactions. The Daily Beast was among the first to report on the difference. I call it suspicious and references to allegations that ticket sales may have been artificially increased.
First Lady Melania Trump met with released American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4.
Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel also questioned the film’s ticket sales on his show and joked that the success might be “gimmicked.”
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“A lot of people, including me, were wondering how this movie managed to sell $7 million worth of tickets last weekend when nearly every theater was empty leading up to its release.” Kimmel said during his monologue: on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump stands next to First Lady Melania Trump during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on November 6, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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The host went on to suggest that movie tickets were purchased and distributed to Republican activists and senior citizens’ homes.
“Melania” exceeded expectations in its opening weekend, grossing more than $7.1 million at the box office. The film generated one of the strongest opening weekends ever for a non-music documentary. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the project and spent another $35 million on marketing.
