Melania drops 67% at US box office as Rotten Tomatoes defends record audience scores | Melania

Melania, Brett Ratner’s authorized documentary that follows the First Lady in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, fell 67% in its second week of US release.

The film exceeded expectations during its first weekend, earning $7.2 million domestically and leading Amazon to expand its rollout from about 1,500 venues to just over 2,000. But indications are that appetite has already diminished, with Sunday’s forecast standing at $2.3 million, meaning a drop from third to 10th place in the US box office charts.

Amazon pre-empted that disappointment with a statement on Saturday, noting the film’s already healthy performance, as well as what it hopes will be a long-running run.

“Melania’s strong theatrical performance is a critical first moment that validates our overall distribution strategy, building awareness and engagement and providing momentum ahead of the film’s eventual premiere on Prime Video,” said Kevin Wilson, president of distribution at Amazon MGM.

A streaming release date has not been announced yet.

The film, for which Amazon paid $40 million after a bidding war and then spent another $35 million on marketing, was released in 26 countries around the world (its screening in South Africa was abruptly canceled at the eleventh hour).

Although international statistics are difficult to obtain, the film performed significantly less well across its approximately 3,000 outdoor screens.

Top-performing territories include the UK, where it opened at 29th in the chart, taking in £32,974 for a £212 per-screen average, as well as Australia and Slovenia, home of Melania Trump.

Critics almost universally panned the film, with The Guardian’s Zane Brooks calling it “a remake of the gilded rubbish of the area of ​​interest” and “two hours of pure, endless hell.”

But audiences seemed to feel otherwise, resulting in a record gap between its critics’ score and its audience member equivalent on review ranking site Rotten Tomatoes.

On that site, it has an official review rating of just 8%, yet it has a score of 99% from moviegoers on Popcornmeter, with one user praising it as “the best documentary I’ve seen in years. The cinematography was gorgeous, the soundtrack was excellent, and Melania herself was amazing. It’s a great film that should get many awards.”

Versant, the parent company of Rotten Tomatoes, rejected speculation that the latest figure was the result of a torrent of fake reviews, telling Variety: “There was no manipulation of audience reviews of the Melania documentary.”

“The reviews shown on Popcornmeter are verified reviews, which means it has been verified that users have purchased a ticket for the movie through Fandango,” they added.

However, there appears to be a stark contrast between the warmth of those reviews marked as “verified” because users purchased a ticket through a particular site and those collected in “All Audience Ratings” – which does not count towards their rating.

The first – as the 99% rating suggests – contains sweeping praise and evangelism, with users urging “every red-blooded American to watch this film to learn about the grace, sophistication, and power of Flautius.” [sic]“It applauds the lack of nudity and profanity.

The vast majority of users commenting seem to be first-time posters, and Melania was their first reviewer.

Criticisms in the “All Audience Reviews” section tend to be drawn from accounts with deeper prior engagement on the site, and include reviews such as “I thought it was going to be based on their actual lives, both good and bad. There was no emotion, drama, or depth. It’s just a bad reality show,” and “Ridiculous garbage. Don’t waste your time or money.”