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3 min readNew DelhiFeb 7, 2026 02:16 PM IST
Rotten Tomatoes defends the audience score of Melania Trump's documentary. (Photo: Instagram/Melania)
Melania Trump, the First Lady of US, is currently trying to push her documentary to wider audiences. The Melania documentary received a lot of flak from the get-go, with many boycotting it completely. However, the audience score (popcornmeter) on the Rotten Tomatoes platform seems to be telling a different story. Melania currently sits at 99%, which has raised some questions, because the critics’ score (tomatometer) on the same platform is 8%.
This is the biggest split between the two metrics ever, which has led the people to believe that something untoward is going on. According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson of the platform spoke about the allegations of tampering with the numbers and promised that there has been “no manipulation of the audience reviews for the Melania documentary. Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are verified reviews, meaning it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film through Fandango.”
Critics vs Audience
Several critics have given the film horrible reviews; for example, Adam Graham of Detroit News wrote, “Its defining trait is that it’s numbingly, agonisingly dull.” While Jemima Kelly from the Financial Times wrote, “It is not clear why the first lady thought she should make this film. It would be easy to write it off as pure propaganda, but, if it is, it is not very successful.”
The Rotten Tomatoes score of Melania. (Photo: Screenshot/Rotten Tomatoes)
On the other hand, the audience reviews make it seem like they have seen a completely different film. One verified user wrote, “It was entertaining and informative on inaugural events. It wasn’t a political film. I really enjoyed it. Definitely would recommend.” Another user wrote, “Very interesting look into the lives of FLOTUS as she prepares for the inauguration. This was so much more enjoyable than an interview format.”
Michelle Obama’s documentary witnesses surge in viewership
According to Amazon MGM, the Melania documentary earned $7.1 million during its opening weekend, which can be looked at as a positive, despite the $75 million budget hanging around the studio’s neck. Whether the Brett Ratner directorial is getting eyeballs or not, there is one documentary in the market that is definitely getting views since Melania’s release.
The documentary on the life of Michelle Obama, the former First Lady of the US, titled Becoming, saw a 13,000% surge in views on Netflix. According to data provider Luminate, the documentary was viewed for 354,000 minutes during the last week of January, and then it rose to 47.5 million minutes during the Jan 30 – Feb 1 weekend. The documentary was released in 2020 and is experiencing a resurgence now.
English (US) ·