Jimmy Kimmel isn’t buying the latest supposed success story surrounding President Donald Trump and his family.
“Melania,” the new documentary about first lady Melania Trump, defied both expectations and brutal critical reviews to earn $7 million at the box office over the weekend, giving it the biggest opening for a non-music documentary in more than a decade.
“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,” he said.
Kimmel said there are now reports that the sales were goosed by bulk-ticket purchases, or blocks of tickets bought by someone who then handed them out free at places such as senior homes.
“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 bestseller,” Kimmel pointed out.
Disclosure forms the following year revealed the purchase on Donald Trump Jr.’s “Triggered,” with the RNC eventually shelling out a reported $300,000 for copies of the book.
“Don Jr.’s book debuted number one on the New York Times bestseller list despite the fact that no one has ever read it,” Kimmel said. “No one has ever even opened that book.”
Kimmel applied the president’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election to the “Melania” box office.
“We need to get to the bottom of this. Send in Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI,” he urged. “Seize the ticket machines, the popcorn buckets, the box-office receipts at every multiplex in America.”
See more in his Wednesday night monologue:
