Jimmy Kimmel won’t stop ragging on “Melania,” the Amazon MGM-backed documentary that follows Melania Trump in the 20 days leading up to her husband Donald’s second presidential inauguration. During his latest “Jimmy Kimmel Live” monologuethe late-night host questioned the documentary’s box office numbers. “Melania” opened to $7 million domesticallya strong start for a documentary feature (although not the best start for a movie that Amazon bought for $40 million and then spent $35 million to market).
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“Sources say there were signs that blocks of tickets to ‘Melania’ were purchased and then distributed to Republican activists and senior citizens’ homeswhich are really the same thing,” Trump saidreferring to recent reports that bulk buying played into the film’s increased box office debut.
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“Imagine those poor senior citizens,” Kimmel quipped. “‘Good morningMrs. Greenwald. Here are your heart pills and here are your liver pills. And here’s a pair of tickets to ‘Melania.'”
“To be fairsome people actually did go see the movieincluding this group who call themselves the Church Ladies,” Kimmel continuedthrowing to a photo of a group of white women all wearing the same white dress with black stripes. “The rest of us call them the Dumb-as-the-Rockettes. They look like they dressed up as a group of redacted documents from the Epstein files. It’s all very susas the kids like to say.”
Kimmel then turned his attention towards “Melania” reviewswhich have largely been negative compared to through-the-roof audience scores.
“As of tonightMelania has a score of 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics. That is very low,” Kimmel said. “To put that in perspectivethat is 1% lower than ‘Gigli.’ The audience score for ‘Melania’ is 99% positivewhich is 1% higher than ‘The Godfather.’ And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all.”
Kimmel concluded“We need to get to the bottom of this. Send in Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI! Seize the ticket machinesthe popcorn bucketsthe box office receiptsat every multiplex in America!”
As Variety reportedthe audience for “Melania” during its opening weekend was 72% female and 83% over the age of 45. Nearly 75% of ticket buyers were whiteaccording to PostTrak data. While Los Angeles and New York City theaters are traditionally among the top markets“Melania” performed best in red cities such as DallasOrlandoTampaPhoenix and West Palm Beach.
Kimmel has been critical of “Melania” since before the documentary openedwhen he ripped the movie as a “$75 million bribe” that “Amazon made for her.” The host then roasted the movie’s $7 million box office debut by saying “it set a record. It was the biggest opening for a non-musical vanity project/brazen corporate bribe in the last 10 years.”
Watch Kimmel’s latest monologue in the video below.