Melania Documentary Claims: Ratings and Box Office Context (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Melania Trump has released her documentary. On Sunday she claimed it's the highest opening weekend for a documentary in a decade, with some high ratings too. But were these claims accurate? Spreadsheets out. Popcorn Meter, the online fan rating system, did give the movie 99%, but film website Rotten Tomatoes Critics' score was 10% on Sunday, not 98%, and the cinema score rating is an A. Other scoring websites such as Metacritic and IMDb had lower scores, and it may have the highest opening weekend box office in a decade, but only in the US market, not counting China. Melania has had a reported opening weekend of over $7 million, more than the expected estimate of $5 million. But the highest grossing opening weekend for a documentary is Justin Bieber's Never Say Never, which opened with $29 million in the US and Canada in 2011. And if we're counting concert films, then Bieber and Melania are dwarfed by Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which opened with $93 million in 2023. So Melania has had the highest grossing opening of any documentary in the past 10 years in the US market, but not if you're including concert films.