Rotten Tomatoes' parent company, Versant, has dismissed claims that the near‑perfect audience score for the new Melania Trump documentary is fake, saying the record-breaking gap with critics' reviews is not the result of bots or vote tampering.

The Amazon MGM documentary, titled "Melania," currently has an audience score of 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while critics' reviews sit in the single digits, creating the largest gap between the two scores in the site's history. A spokesperson for Rotten Tomatoes confirmed that this split is now the widest ever recorded on the platform, eclipsing previous controversies over divisive films.

The documentary follows First Lady Melania Trump in the days leading up to her husband Donald Trump's 2025 presidential inauguration, a subject that has sharply divided reviewers along political and stylistic lines, according to Variety.

Versant, the company that owns Rotten Tomatoes, released a statement stressing that the user ratings for "Melania" come from verified ticket buyers, not automated accounts or coordinated campaigns.

"There has been NO manipulation on the audience reviews for the 'Melania' documentary," the company said, explaining that scores shown on the site's Popcornmeter are marked as "VERIFIED" only after confirming users purchased tickets through Fandango or partner sellers.

The owner declined to name which movie previously held the record for the biggest critic, audience disparity, but emphasized that the platform is confident in the integrity of its audience system.

The extreme split quickly drew attention from late-night television and social media, with some commentators alleging that pro-Trump groups were artificially boosting the score to send a political message, CBR reported.

On his show, comedian Jimmy Kimmel highlighted that "Melania's" 99 percent audience rating sits higher than that of classic films like "The Godfather," joking that "Donald J. Corleone" might be behind the surge in praise. Critics, meanwhile, have largely panned the film, accusing it of hagiography and weak filmmaking even as it continues to attract enthusiastic supporters in theaters.

The uproar comes as review platforms face growing pressure to show they can resist "review bombing" and organized manipulation from both fans and political activists.

By stressing that "Melania's" reviews are tied to verified ticket purchases, Versant is signaling that it will defend the audience score even when it clashes sharply with critical consensus. For now, the company is treating the "Melania" split as a reflection of the United States' wider political divide rather than a flaw in its rating system, as per Screen Rant.

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Donald trump, Melania trump