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Rotten Tomatoes is pushing back against claims the audience score for the “Melania” film was artificially inflated. The film has one of the widest gaps in Rotten Tomatoes history, with more than a 93-percentage-point difference between critic and audience scores.
The film follows first lady Melania Trump during the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. As of Friday, it holds a 6% critics score and a 99% audience rating.
Versant, the parent company of Rotten Tomatoes, denied any tampering with the score, telling Variety there was “no bot manipulation” of audience reviews.
“Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film,” they added.
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The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has logged more than 48,200 user ratings for the “Melania” film since its release, with most votes landing at one star.
The film currently holds a 1.3-star rating on that site. IMDb has also posted an “unusual activity” warning under the title reading, “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title.”
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Several media outlets have called out the large disparity in reactions online. The Daily Beast was among the first to report on the gap, calling it suspicious and citing claims that ticket sales may have been artificially boosted.
Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel also questioned the film’s ticket sales on his show, joking that the success may have been “rigged.”
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“A lot of people, myself included, have been wondering how this movie managed to sell $7 million worth of tickets last weekend when almost every theater seemed to be empty leading up to the release,” Kimmel said during his monologue on Wednesday.
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The host continued by speculating that tickets to the movie were purchased and distributed to Republican activists and senior citizens’ homes.
“Melania” beat expectations during its opening weekend, bringing in more than $7.1 million at the box office. The film marked one of the strongest opening weekends ever for a non-music documentary. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the project and spent an additional $35 million on marketing.