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Breaking News / Re: Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 2/10
« Last post by SVPete on February 10, 2026, 05:02:48 PM »Leftist critics hate 'Melania,' but the audience loves it | Opinion
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/02/10/melania-movie-reviews-rotten-tomatoes-score/88545838007/
For a feature film, a $7M opener would be disastrous. For a documentary, apparently it busts through the charts' ceiling. It's easy to dismiss, it's just $7M; OTOH, it drew in an audience that would not normally be in a theater. So
. More telling, maybe, is the canyon between critics' comments, which were obviously knee-jerkingly Hate-Trump (some admitting not having seen what they denigrated), and comments from ordinary people who actually did see the movie (and might not be willing to lie-for-the-cause).
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/02/10/melania-movie-reviews-rotten-tomatoes-score/88545838007/
Quote
If you needed an example of the disconnect between legacy media and the country at large, look no further than “Melania.”
...
The critics HATE it, giving it a lousy score of just 10%, according to Rotten Tomatoes (compare that with the 93% score critics gave the 2020 documentary “Becoming” about former first lady Michelle Obama).
Yet, the Americans heading to the theater to watch “Melania” have a vastly different takeaway. They’ve given it a score of 99%.
This discrepancy has broken the film rating site's 27-year record.
...
Think of the critic-audience divide on this documentary as a microcosm of the chasm between how the legacy media treats President Donald Trump and how much of the country views him.
...
“Melania” was released widely on Jan. 30 and, in its opening weekend, smashed expectations, earning at least $7 million. That’s the best opening for a documentary in more than a decade.
Jeff Bock, senior media analyst for Exhibitor Relations, told USA TODAY ahead of the film’s release that anything over $1 million would be “a huge number” and would indicate “a lot of folks who don't normally go to the movies went to this.”
...
I doubt the media will learn anything from “Melania.” But if they were willing to glean something, it should be that marketing to conservatives – and the 77 million Americans who voted for Trump – can pay off.
For a feature film, a $7M opener would be disastrous. For a documentary, apparently it busts through the charts' ceiling. It's easy to dismiss, it's just $7M; OTOH, it drew in an audience that would not normally be in a theater. So
. More telling, maybe, is the canyon between critics' comments, which were obviously knee-jerkingly Hate-Trump (some admitting not having seen what they denigrated), and comments from ordinary people who actually did see the movie (and might not be willing to lie-for-the-cause).
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