Melania: Twenty Days to History, Amazon’s trumped-up documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, reportedly exceeded box-office expectations, bringing in $7 million when pundits prognosticated torn stubs worth between $1 million and $5 million. And Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel had a field day on Wednesday night with the news.

Colbert claimed the figures need context. “Seven million dollars would seem like a solid opening, until you realize that’s less than 10 percent of the $75 million Amazon spent on the documentary, which includes paying the first lady herself at least $28 million,” he said on The Late Show. “That’s enough cash to put a smile on your face … if that were physically possible.” He also had a Melania Trump impersonator attempt to explain the movie.

Kimmel also questioned a different set of numbers during his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue. “As of tonight, Melania has a score of five percent on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics,” he said. “That is very low. To put that in perspective, that is one percent lower than Gigli,” the 2003 Bennifer box-office bomb, which Rolling Stone described as “jaw-droppingly awful.” Counterintuitively, he pointed out that the Popcornmeter (fans’ approval rating), is through the roof. “The audience score is 99 percent positive, which is one percent higher than The Godfather,” he said. “And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all.”

As far as the money goes, Kimmel joked that the way Amazon is crowing that it’s the best nonmusical documentary opening in 14 years was smoke and mirrors. “I think [that] is a fancy way of saying it only lost tens of millions of dollars,” he said.

Joking that it’s possible that Republican groups purchased bulk tickets to drive up the numbers (though he showed a group of women who called themselves “the Church Ladies,” who were all dressed alike), Kimmel requested a recount. “Send in Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI. Seize the ticket machines, the popcorn buckets, the box-office receipts at every multiplex in America,” he said. He also blasted Amazon ownerJeff Bezos for firing about a third of The Washington Post’s staff after financing Melania.

Rotten Tomatoes Owner Says ‘Melania’ 99% Audience Score Is Not ‘Bot Manipulation’: ‘Reviews Are Verified… Users Bought a Ticket to the Film’

Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company Versant is denying any tampering is going on with the “Melania” audience scores on the review aggregator website. The Amazon MGM-backed documentary has a 99% audience score compared to a disastrous 7% critics score as of the Friday morning heading into “Melania’s” second weekend of release. The huge divide between the scores has led many to wonder if MAGA-supported bots are being used to drive up the audience score.

“There has been no bot manipulation on the audience reviews for the ‘Melania’ documentary,” Versant said in a statement to Variety. “Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film.”

Jimmy Kimmel questioned the documentary’s audience scores during his Feb. 4 monologue when he said: “As of tonight, Melania has a score of 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics. That is very low. To put that in perspective, that is 1% lower than ‘Gigli.’ The audience score for ‘Melania’ is 99% positive, which is 1% higher than ‘The Godfather.’ And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all.”

Kimmel added, “We need to get to the bottom of this. Send in Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI! Seize the ticket machines, the popcorn buckets, the box office receipts, at every multiplex in America!”

Per Rolling Stone: “Melania Trump’s new documentary is now the film with the biggest disparity between critic and audience reviews in Rotten Tomatoes history.”

“Melania,” directed by Brett Ratner, follows Melania Trump in the 20 days leading up to her husband Donald’s second presidential inauguration. The film opened to $7 million domestically, a strong start for a documentary feature but not the best start for a movie that Amazon bought for $40 million and then spent $35 million to market.

As Variety reported, the audience for “Melania” during its opening weekend was 72% female and 83% over the age of 45. Nearly 75% of ticket buyers were white, according to PostTrak data.

Late-night hosts take on Melania Trump’s documentary. See their jokes

First lady Melania Trump’s documentary “Melania” got critical reviews despite exceeding expectations at the box office. Now, late-night television is weighing in.

“Melania,” out in theaters on Jan. 30, follows Trump’s journey back to the White House in early 2025. It reveals little about her, and leans heavily on picturesque shots and an upbeat soundtrack. Upping the controversy around it, the film was directed by Rush Hour director Brett Ratner, his first big project since he was accused of sexual harassment in 2017.

Variety’s film critic called the documentary, “a piece of state-sanctioned propaganda out of 1960s Communist China.” The Atlantic said that “Ratner seems desperate to find action, but there is none.” Still, the film recorded an estimated a $7 million opening weekend.

But this week, the late-night television hosts had some fun with it. Here is what they had to say:

Who played Melania Trump on Stephen Colbert?

On “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the host brought in some backup to spoof on Trump’s demeanor. In the Feb. 4 show, actress Laura Benanti appeared as the first lady, speaking in an accent with signature honey-waved hair and an exaggerated modeling expression.

Colbert presses the actress on what the movie is about, alluding to the first lady’s comments that it isn’t a documentary, but something more artistic.

“It’s about $28 million in my pocket, cha-chingaaaa!” Benanti says in character. “Just like me, it is a very creepy mystery.”

In one of the more personal moments of the movie, Ratner and Trump are in a car together, where she tells him “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson is her favorite song and they sing along together.

Colbert asks Benanti why it is her favorite.

“Let’s just say it brings a smile to my face every time I look at Eric and think, ‘the kid is not my son,'” she says before moonwalking off camera.

Jimmy Kimmel alludes to box office rigging

In Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue on Feb. 4, he warned of President Donald Trump‘s rhetoric about the upcoming elections.

“Speaking of rigged outcomes, the ‘Melania’ documentary, now allegedly, they exceeded box office expectations,” Kimmel said. The $7 million opening weekend gives the film the best start for a documentary, except concert films, in over a decade, according to the New York Times. But it still falls far behind the $40 million Amazon MGM Studios paid for it, with a reported additional $35 million in marketing.

“A lot of people, myself included, have been wondering how this movie managed to sell $7 million worth of tickets last weekend when almost every theater seemed to be empty leading up to the release,” Kimmel said.