Brett Ratner's authorised documentary 'Melania' has seen a 67% drop at the US box office in its second week, despite an expanded release to over 2,000 screens. The film, which follows Melania Trump in the 20 days before Donald Trump's January 2025 inauguration, earned $7.2m in its opening weekend but is projected to take only $2.3m in its second, dropping from third to tenth place in the charts.
Amazon, which paid $40m for the film plus $35m in marketing, defended the performance, with distribution chief Kevin Wilson calling it 'a critical first moment that validates our holistic distribution strategy'. The film has been released in 26 countries, though international figures are limited; in the UK it opened at number 29 with £32,974 from 156 screens.
Critics have panned the documentary, with the Guardian's Xan Brooks calling it 'a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest' and 'two hours of pure, endless hell'. However, audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes tell a different story: the film holds an 8% critics' rating but a 99% 'Popcornmeter' score from verified ticket buyers, creating a record gap between the two measures.
Rotten Tomatoes' parent company Versant denied manipulation, stating that the audience reviews are verified through ticket purchases via Fandango. However, a disparity exists between these verified reviews and the 'all audience reviews' section, where users with prior reviewing history offer more critical assessments, such as 'hot garbage' and 'a bad reality show'. Many of the positive reviews come from first-time posters.
