Reviews for Melania, the self-titled documentary about first lady Melania Trump, reveal an unprecedented gap between critics and viewers.
Since its theatrical release on Jan. 30, the film has earned just an 8% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, slightly up from an earlier 6%. Audience reactions, however, tell a very different story. Among verified ticket buyers, the documentary holds a striking 99% positive rating. When unverified audience reviews are included, that number drops significantly to 29%.
According to a Rotten Tomatoes spokesperson speaking to PEOPLE, this represents the largest disparity between critic and audience scores the platform has ever recorded.
Addressing online speculation, Rotten Tomatoes firmly denied any wrongdoing. “There has been absolutely no bot manipulation involved in the audience reviews for Melania,” the spokesperson said, emphasizing that the Popcornmeter score reflects only verified users who purchased tickets.
The documentary also made headlines at the box office. During its opening weekend from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, Melania earned $7.04 million globally, setting a new record for the biggest opening weekend for a non-fiction film in the past ten years. The previous record belonged to 2023’s After Death, which debuted with $5 million, according to Deadline.
Despite the strong start, the film’s earnings fall well short of its reported $40 million acquisition cost by Amazon MGM Studios, along with an additional $35 million spent on marketing.
Melania also marks the return of director Brett Ratner, a controversial Hollywood figure who stepped away from filmmaking after multiple women—including Olivia Munn—accused him of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. Ratner has denied the allegations, and no charges were filed.
The documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, told from the perspective of the first lady–elect.
Interestingly, the film’s release coincided with a massive resurgence in interest for another first lady’s documentary. Michelle Obama’s Becoming, released in May 2020, saw its Netflix viewership surge by 13,300% during the same weekend Melania debuted in theaters. Viewing minutes jumped from 354,000 the previous weekend to 47.5 million between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1.
Based on Obama’s bestselling 2018 memoir, Becoming offers an intimate look at her life after leaving the White House, including behind-the-scenes moments from her 34-city book tour. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 93% critics score and a 78% audience rating.
