They added: “Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning that it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film through Fandango”.

Doesn't mean they aren't paid shills.

Rotted Rotten Tomatoes.

Someone at RT is in the epstine files.

90% swing between critics and public? WTF? Has there ever been a movie with so many fake reviews?

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania

Wow. Currently 8% vs 99%

Buying a ticket and actually watching the movie are two different things. For all we know all those that "bought" a ticket and left a review are all the military personnel that were ordered to go see it and probably were ordered to leave a glowing review.

Why would anyone go watch a movie about an imported prostitute?

0% chance that's legit.

Is rotten tomatoes not own by amazon the same company on which half the AI review ( sometimes not even about the product where the review is posted ) show verified purchase?

They're not supposed to. It's just shameless bribery. I bet the whole thing is just about DJT from her POV anyway.

I saw a clip of...maybe Jordan Klepper...interviewing people going into a showing. All of them just full-on fan-girl with anticipation, and completely upside down from the entire rest of the world. All older white people, fancy dress, clearly wealthy; might have been a premier.

It left me thinking that someone should follow some of these people around for a while to see where their special reality comes from. Study them, like Jane Goodall with the apes.

The only people buying tickets for this are maga morons, so this makes sense.

Exactly, and it doesn't mean that Rotten Tomatoes is somehow involved in the review manipulation. It is obviously possible for an external party to influence the audience score, they just need enough money to buy tickets that can verify. It's probably a much easier way than pressuring RT to manipulate the reviews if you have the money (and maybe even an interest in funneling that money into movie earnings)

That most people wouldn't even think of buying a ticket and thus can't post a review almost definitely plays a part as well.

We need tariffs on imported prostitutes, support the domestic sex worker industry!

^/s^ ^but^ ^kinda^ ^not^

and bots.

and when you look at who owns the sites, you have to also throw in the very real possibility of manipulation of the data itself from within, too.

for boston they had a craigslist post asking for people to go and be paid for launch night

Trump would probably support the sex worker industry but they are all too old for him.

RT owned by Fandango, mostly NBC. You might be thinking of IMDb where the film has been listed as #1 movie in america all week, with a 1.3/10 rating.

I'd watch a true story documentary on her life, I think that would be intriguing and unique. How many mail order brides find themselves in the white house, ya know? What happened in her life to get to that point? But this film is not that, only covering the month of January 2025.

The users commenting appear in the overwhelming majority to be first-time posters, for whom Melania is their first review.

Critiques in the “all audience reviews” section tend to derive from accounts with a deeper prior engagement on the site, and include assessments such as “I thought it would have been based on her actual life, good and bad. There was no emotion, drama or depth. It’s just a bad reality show,” and “Hot garbage. Don’t waste your time or money.”

Gee, that doesn't scream bots at all. /s

No, it’s owned by Fandango, which itself is mainly owned by Versant (formerly the NBCUniversal cable network business) and WBD.

I saw that too. They were all a bunch of rich Republicans. The screening was at the Kennedy center so it wouldn't surprise me if basically everyone watching that screening was a government worker (or their friend/family) who probably moved to DC specifically to work for their favorite fascist.

I also wondered how those people could be real and studying them wouldn't be a bad idea.

Sure.

Man, this looks very bad for RT. If they don't course correct on this, they are going to lie any remaining trust or faith.

My partner said this also, but personally I find her the least interesting person in history. I really doubt there's much to her life besides her using her looks to manipulate her reality. She randomly met the right rich loser and used him for his money. Then his psychopathic personality led him to the white house. If they did make that documentary I would watch it, but I feel pretty confident I would be disgusted by a terrible person getting humanized and being reminded by the awful destruction of the United States that weighs literally zero on her conscience.

There is no way to square her actions with anything but a soulless money-hungry void where a human is supposed to be. She may be most remembered by her explicit choice to wear a jacket reading "I really don't care, do you?" When visiting a prison for immigrants. And if that turns out to be the case, it would be fair. She's a fucking monster, and every day she doesn't kill or divorce Trump is a day she proves that

They had a round table of reporters who watched the movie talking about it on npr. One guy said he stood up before the movie and asked anyone in the audience who was not a reporter to raise their hands and two people did. Later he was asked if it was propoganda and he was like. It was more like an informercial. He also pointed out they had a scene of trumps inaugural which does not line up with actual video of his inaugural.

RT critic score always was shite, they would push expensive shit projects in the 90+% range constantly.

The audience score usually has been more reliable but as this instance shows, it's super easy to manipulate as well.

IMDB scores are much more reliable

Oh yeah you're not wrong and there's about a dozen caveats to me actually wanting to watch it. It needs to be objective and fact based. It needs to be produced independently. It needs to include an actual investigation, with interviews of friends from the old country. And so on.

But I stand by that there is at least a unique, albeit horrifying, story there for someone unaffiliated to uncover.

How is IMDb much more reliable? I'd argue that's even easier to manipulate as you don't need to buy a ticket to leave a review. Review bombing (in either direction) is pretty rampant on IMDB.

Ya probably got them mixed

To be fair, though, she’s a psychopath, so it’s bound to be ugly and boring. Imagine the life of that soulless zombie-esque creature. What is there to watch?

RT looking almost as bad as RT.

Would an imported prostitute (not that there’s anything wrong with that) be given an Einstein visa?

Sometimes it’s fun to not have given a shit about movies for several decades.

How can you even have a documentary about possibly the most uninteresting person on earth? I'm not sure that I've even heard her speak before. A documentary about my neighbor would be more intriguing.

Maybe I don't understand that site, but you click on the 99% rating and you get a list of reviews that shows 20 rotten, 2 fresh. Just a bad look imo.

Sorry in this case we can't tell you how the ratings work, it is classified for national security reasons.

"applauding the lack of nudity and profanity."

Hmmm wonder if they ever saw the prequel?

I'm not convinced there's a conspiracy here. Seems entirely likely that Rotten Tomatoes has no contingency for the release of a movie so blatantly sycophantic and propagandistic that the only people spending money on tickets are those who are already bought into the fantasy.

🤣 reeks of "I have a " fill in the blank racist stereotype "friend!"

The screening was at the Kennedy center so it wouldn't surprise me if basically everyone watching that screening was a government worker (or their friend/family) who probably moved to DC specifically to work for their favorite fascist.

Sounds like a bunch of DEI hires to me.

Nazi snowflakes deserve jobs too! /s

What if she's Krasnov's handler and this tripe is to ensure she looks vapid and uninteresting when the feds remember their mandate?

Wow, or we could drop the misogyny and just dislike her for being part of a fascist dynasty. No need to berate sex workers, either.

Rotten tomatoes has always been shit, always gonna be shit

it makes sesnse though. Anyone paying to see it is probably MAGA anyway, so of course they’re going to rate it highly.

i doubt very many non MAGA types have seen it, so there will be very few negative reviews for that reason alone.

I didn't detect any judgement. "Why would anyone go watch a movie about an imported wife?" and "Why would anyone go watch a movie about an imported cashier?" both sound about the same as the original sentence to me...

I came to that conclusion after paying money to see Brad pitt in F1 following 97% scores.

They took the exact plot of Stallone's Driven, to date the worst movie ever made about racing, or anything else.

And yet we won't get a How Did This Get Made episode about F1, making it completely worthless

Conservatives are bootlicking morons.

Pretty much anything that reaches a critical mass now gets manipulated. Web 2.0 saw to that.