Rotten Tomatoes Insists There Is No MAGA ‘Bot Manipulation’ Behind Melania Doc’s Whopping Audience Score

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP photo)

Finding a positive critic review of the new Melania documentary is only slightly easier than finding a needle in a haystack, but audiences seeing it universally love it — at least according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Versant, the parent company of the review aggregation website, said in a statement to Variety this week that there is no “bot manipulation” behind the fact that Melania carries a 99% approval rating with audience members, but only 7% with critics.

“There has been no bot manipulation on the audience reviews for the Melania documentary,” Versant said. “Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film.”

According to the website, there are more than 1,000 verified audience reviews for Melania and 46 from critics. Critics have used the wide gap in receptions for the movie as a point of mockery. Late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel suggested President Donald Trump had something to do with the high audience rating for his wife’s film.

“The audience score for Melania is 99% positive, which is 1% higher than The Godfather. And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all,” Kimmel said on his show this week.

Melania, directed by Brett Ratner, drew nearly $8 million in its opening weekend, giving it the highest debut for a documentary in a decade. It’s continued performing well during the week. What complicates its path to profit is the fact that Amazon forked over $40 million for the rights to it (plus a docuseries) and reportedly spent $35 million to market everything.

Ratner — who saw his career temporarily stall after he faced multiple sexual assault allegations in 2017, all of which he denies — called the opening box office for Melania “validation” and “undeniable.”

“I mean, the validation was undeniable, but honestly, I felt like I won just when Melania called me and asked me to direct the film,” the director told Fox News Digital. “When I saw the president for the first time, and after I was hired, I said to him, ‘that bullet that missed you, I think was a divine intervention.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I think you’re right.'”

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