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Rotten Tomatoes has shut down speculation that the high audience score for Melania Trump documentary Melania was the result of “manipulation”.
The Amazon movie about the First Lady, directed by Brett Ratner, broke records for the review aggregator website this week for the dubious honour of achieving the biggest discrepancy between critics’ scores and audience ratings in the last 27 years.
Critical response to the film, which was released in cinemas at the end of January and debuted at number 29 at the UK box office, has been poor, picking up just 8 per cent on the Rotten Tomatoes “Tomatometer”.
However, it received a 99 per cent score from cinemagoers on the “Popcornmeter”, prompting some film fans to speculate that some of those fan reviews might not be entirely legitimate.
In a statement, Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company Versant told Variety that “there has been NO manipulation on the audience reviews for the Melania documentary”.
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Melania Trump in her new documentary, ‘Melania’ (Amazon)
They added that “reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning that it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film through Fandango”.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Melania – her warmth, compassion, and dedication to this country,” one viewer wrote of the film.
“Beautifully done!” another fan raved. “Sophistication and class. Amazing First Lady!”
Amazon reportedly spent $40 million on acquiring the rights for the film, as well as a further $35 million on marketing.
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The film has defied expectations in the US, but flopped in the UK and Ireland (Getty)
In the United States, it has exceeded box office expectations, taking $7 million at the box office in the opening weekend.
Over in the UK and Ireland, however, it has not fared as well, amassing £32,974 from 155 cinemas in total, a screen average of £212.80.
In a one star review, The Independent’s Nick Hilton described the film as “somewhere between reality TV and pure fiction”, and suggested that “to call Melania vapid would do a disservice to the plumes of florid vape smoke that linger around British teenagers”.
“This is American history through the idiosyncratic prism of a woman who is part-puppet of the regime, part-delusional creative, and part-symbol of America’s immigrant community,” he argued.