New Amazon Movie Smashes A 27-Year Old Rotten Tomatoes Record

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A new movie recently released in theaters has achieved a record on Rotten Tomatoes, breaking one that stood for 27 years. It’s becoming more common for films to receive very different reactions from critics and audiences, especially big-budget action movies which often seem immune to negative reviews. For instance, the movie Transformers has a low 57% score from critics but a high 85% from audiences. Sometimes, scores on Rotten Tomatoes can be misleading due to review bombing, as seen with Captain Marvel, which has a 79% critics’ score but only a 45% audience score. Many of the negative audience reviews for Captain Marvel were submitted before the movie even came out.

A surprising divide between critics and audiences is appearing on Rotten Tomatoes, and a new documentary called Melania currently has the biggest gap. Critics have given it a very low 10% rating based on 20 reviews, but audiences overwhelmingly love it, giving it a 99% score from over 500 reviews. Previously, the widest difference was seen with the 2019 Aladdin remake (57% critics score, 94% audience score), which had a large number of over 50,000 ratings. Even Captain Marvel had a low audience score, but that was based on over 100,000 ratings.

Before Melania, the movie with the biggest gap between critics’ and audience scores was the 1999 crime drama, The Boondock Saints. It became a beloved cult classic, but critics and viewers strongly disagreed. Critics gave it a poor 26% rating, calling it an imitation of Quentin Tarantino and generally negative. However, audiences loved it, giving it a near-perfect 91% score and continuing to praise it with over 250,000 ratings. This created a 65% difference in opinion, a record that Melania surpassed with an 89% gap.

Melania Divides Critics & Audience Members in Interesting Ways

Brett Ratner’s Melania, a documentary produced by Amazon MGM Studios, marked his return to directing after 12 years and was his first foray into documentary filmmaking. The film chronicles Melania Trump’s life in the days before her husband, Donald Trump, sought a second term as U.S. President. While it earned $7.04 million in its opening weekend, it trailed behind Send Help ($20 million) and Iron Lung ($18 million). With a production budget of $40 million and $35 million spent on marketing, Melania still needs to perform well to become profitable.

I think the difference in the Rotten Tomatoes score makes sense when you read the reviews. This documentary is about Melania Trump, and anything political is bound to be divisive. But looking at what people are saying, it’s clear why some really connected with the film while others didn’t like it at all.

Reviews of the documentary have been largely negative. Owen Gleiberman of Variety described it as lifeless and overly produced, comparing it to a blatant advertisement. Other critics have noted the film is dull and moves at a sluggish pace, lacking any significant events or compelling content.

Interestingly, many positive reviews of the documentary focus more on Melania Trump than on the film itself. Reviewers often praise her directly, with comments like, “She embodies class” and “It’s wonderful to see such grace back in the White House.” One reviewer even described the experience as “magical,” specifically praising the music and calling Melania “the most poised and beautiful First Lady, both inside and out.”

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2026-02-01 23:10