Melania documentary overtakes Sausage Party in list of most divisive films ever

The 2016 film Sausage Party has one of the largest divides between audience and critics reviews. Despite an 82% approval rating from critics, it holds only a 50% rating from audiences according to Rotten Tomatoes. A story of hot dogs, burgers and other anthropomorphic foods fighting their inevitable fate of being eaten by humans, the film is hilariously inappropriate.

This month, joining it on the list of films with the largest audience to critic divide is Melania, a contrastingly formal and humourless documentary that looks at the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s inauguration from the eyes of the no longer former First Lady.

Only one ticket was bought on opening night in VUE’s flagship store in London and, in its second weekend the documentary fell by 67% at the US box office

Last year, a bidding war between Amazon and other Hollywood studios over rights for the documentary resulted in Amazon spending $40 million dollars, the most the company has ever paid for a production. While the company came under fire for appearing to curry favour for the then incoming Trump administration – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was seen having dinner with First Lady Melania Trump and her husband – officials from Amazon claimed it had nothing to do with the Trump administration and that they only invested in the film because they thought “people would want to see it”. While this seems ironic – only one ticket was bought on opening night in VUE’s flagship store in London and, in its second weekend the documentary fell by 67% at the US box office – it got at a 99% audience score on Rotten tomatoes, 91 percentage points more than reviews from critics and 40 percentage points higher than Sausage Party.

Some news outlets, however, have noticed discrepancies between earnings and ticket sales as reports of empty cinemas across America and the UK do not line up with reported box office earnings. The documentary was only projected to generate $5 million in its first weekend, but reportedly made $7 million, which Variety called “a huge start for a documentary” that didn’t involve live music or sport.

According to reports from various American news outlets, bulk-buying may be to thank for the boost in opening weekend ticket sales. How this mass purchasing worked – whether tickets were bought and handed out to senior citizen homes, Republican activists, other interested parties or just simply bought and unattended – is unclear, and some venues have denied experiencing any unusual block purchasing for the film.

It would not be completely uncalled for if the Trump administration were responsible for the disparity between audience attendance and ticket sales

Although, as Jimmy Kimmel pointed out in a monologue at the beginning of February, it would not be completely uncalled for if the Trump administration were responsible for the disparity between audience attendance and ticket sales: in 2019, the Republican National Committee admitted that it bought nearly $100,000 on copies of Donald Trump Jr’s book after the title skyrocketed to No.1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

The documentary was shown at the Kennedy Centre to various Trump officials with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife in attendance, as well as Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr and singer Nicki Minaj. Members of the mainstream press, however, were blocked from watching the documentary, with only one reporter in attendance: Dan Ball, anchor of One America News, a far-right channel.

While many mainstream reporters were also ignored at the press line for the film, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One earlier that month that the documentary was “incredible” and incorrectly maintained that it was “the number one documentary in 19 years”. President Trump also falsely declares that his political ratings are better than ever.

Within the recent release of 3 million additional documents as part of the President’s promise to publicise the Epstein files is an image of Brett Ratner, the director of Melania, hugging two unidentified women alongside Epstein himself. There is no indication of wrongdoing from the file. However, it will be interesting to compare the critical legacy of Melania Trump’s documentary with the legacy of her husband.