Endless Thread
Fresh, stale, or politics? The Melania doc's Rotten Tomatoes score, explained
· Summarized
Key takeaways
- The Melania documentary experienced a distinctly uneven reception with stark contrasts between critic and audience scores.
- Understanding Rotten Tomatoes requires knowledge of both critic reviews (tomato meter) and audience ratings (popcorn meter).
- Astroturfing influences perceptions of popular media, reflecting deeper societal biases and narratives.
- The origins of Rotten Tomatoes highlight the evolving nature of how people find and value film critiques.
- Art appreciation is inherently subjective, and personal feelings about a film should take precedence over aggregate ratings.
Summary
The Melania Documentary and its Box Office Performance
The podcast opens with a discussion about a new documentary on Melania Trump, set to release in 2026. The hosts explore the surprising box office performance, where the film, despite a hefty $75 million budget, earned only $7 million in its opening weekend. This raised eyebrows as there was speculation about inflated ticket sales. Various theories circulated on Reddit, questioning the authenticity of the ticket sales and suggesting possible block purchasing.
The Role of Rotten Tomatoes and Audience vs. Critic Scores
The discussion moves to the discrepancies in scores on Rotten Tomatoes for 'Melania', which has a low 10% critic score compared to a 99% audience score. The hosts delve into the mechanics of how Rotten Tomatoes operates—explaining the tomato meter that reflects critic reviews and the popcorn meter that gauges audience reactions. They discuss how these ratings might be influenced by astroturfing and the motivations behind audience reviews.
Media Influence and Cultural Perception
The episode underscores the influence of media narratives on public perception, analyzing how the political environment surrounding the Melania documentary could impact viewer reception. They discuss the idea that individuals inclined to enjoy the documentary may leave positive reviews, thereby reflecting a bias not present in critic reviews, who approach from a professional standpoint.
Historical Context of Rotten Tomatoes
The hosts provide a fascinating history of Rotten Tomatoes, tracing its origins back to 1998 and its creator's passion for Jackie Chan films. They explain how it evolved from a site compiling reviews to a go-to source for assessing movie quality, merging critic and audience ratings.
Concluding Thoughts on Subjectivity in Film Ratings
As the conversation wraps up, Kalyani and Ben reflect on the nature of art and culture, discussing how personal feelings about film cannot be solely quantified by numbers. They emphasize the importance of subjective experiences over rigid scores, and suggest that finding personal meaning in media can often outweigh the statistics.
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Show notes
Melania, a documentary about the first lady, has a 10 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but a 90 percent score from audience members, an unusual discrepancy that raises the question, how did Rotten Tomatoes get those scores anyway?
Show notes:
- The 'Melania' movie audience: Older white women (NPR)
- Melania’s Movie Shows Signs of Bulk Buying to Boost Box Office: Guru (The Daily Beast)
- You Can Thank 'Rush Hour' for Rotten Tomatoes (Vice)
- Rotten Tomatoes Owner Says ‘Melania’ 99% Audience Score Is Not ‘Bot Manipulation’: ‘Reviews Are Verified… Users Bought a Ticket to the Film’ (Variety)
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