Jimmy Kimmel calls out 'sus' box office for "Melania" doc: 'We need to get to the bottom of this' Wesley StenzelFebruary 6, 2026 at 6:38 AM 0 Jimmy Kimmel on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'; Melania Trump in 'Melania' Disney/Randy Holmes; Muse Films Key points Jimmy Kimmel is calling the Melania documentary's $7 million opening weekend into question. The Jimmy Kimmel Live host suggested that the film's box office numbers were "boosted by bulk ticket purchases that were handed out to people." Kimmel added, "I'm sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all.
- - Jimmy Kimmel calls out 'sus' box office for "Melania" doc: 'We need to get to the bottom of this'
Wesley StenzelFebruary 6, 2026 at 6:38 AM
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Jimmy Kimmel on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'; Melania Trump in 'Melania'
Disney/Randy Holmes; Muse Films
Key points -
Jimmy Kimmel is calling the Melania documentary's $7 million opening weekend into question.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live host suggested that the film's box office numbers were "boosted by bulk ticket purchases that were handed out to people."
Kimmel added, "I'm sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all."
Jimmy Kimmel doesn't think Melania Trump has $7 million worth of fans.
The comedian targeted Melania, the new documentary about the first lady, during his monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night.
"Allegedly they exceeded box office expectations," Kimmel said of the Brett Ratner–directed doc, which was originally projected to make just $1 million-$2 million before industry insiders bumped their projections up to $2 million-$5 million. "They had the best opening for a non-musical documentary in 10 years, which I think is a fancy way of saying it only lost tens of millions of dollars." (Indeed, $7 million is a far cry from the $75 million that Amazon MGM reportedly spent on acquiring and promoting the project.)
Kimmel said he didn't understand "how this movie managed to sell $7 million worth of tickets" in its opening weekend "when almost every theater seemed to be empty leading up to the release."
Jimmy Kimmel on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'
Disney/Randy Holmes
The comedian went on to argue that the film's box office stats may have been padded by unusual group purchases. "There are reports now suggesting that those beautiful box office numbers may have been boosted by bulk ticket purchases that were handed out to people for free," he said. "And if you don't believe this is the kind of thing they would do, you may be forgetting that back in 2019, the Republican National Committee bought $100,000 worth of Don Jr.'s book to put in swag bags to make it a New York Times best-seller."
To Kimmel's point, the New York Times reported that the RNC spent $94,800 on Donald Trump Jr.'s book Triggered the week before it was released. "Don Jr.'s book debuted No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list despite the fact that no one has ever read it," Kimmel quipped. "No one has ever even opened that book. It might be filled with white pages. We'll never know."
Kimmel later claimed, "Sources say there were signs that blocks of tickets to Melania were purchased and then distributed to Republican activists and senior citizens' homes — which are really the same thing."
Box office analyst Tom Brueggemann reported that "industry sources say there were signs that blocs of tickets were purchased for the weekend, then distributed to senior citizen homes, Republican [activists], other interested parties for free to help boost audiences." Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Amazon MGM for further information.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2026
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Later in his monologue, Kimmel reiterated that he remains suspicious about the box office results for Melania. "It's all very sus, as the kids like to say. Do the kids still say 'sus'?" he asked. "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, okay? But that's just what the loser and hater critics had to say. 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."
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Kimmel continued, "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."
Watch Kimmel's full monologue above.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: February 05, 2026 at 10:45PM on Source: MARIO MAG
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