“Melania,” a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, is exceeding box office expectationswith Sunday’s estimates suggesting it will earn $7.04 million in its opening weekend.
The documentary comes in third place for the weekend, behind the Sam Raimi-directed thriller “Send Help” ($20 million) and “Iron Lung” ($17.8 million), a video game adaptation by YouTuber Mark Fischbach (better known as Markiplier).
Amazon paid $40 million to acquire “Melania” and is reportedly spending $35 million to promote it. So even if the documentary beats preliminary estimates calling for an opening weekend of $3 million to $5 million, it’s unlikely to make a profit in theaters.
Amazon’s bid came in at $26 million ahead of the next highest bidder, Disney, leading critics to suggest the deal had less to do with the film’s box office potential than winning over the Trump administration. Veteran film director Ted Hope, who worked at Amazon from 2015 to 2020, told the New York Times that the film “must be the most expensive documentary ever made without a music license.”
“How can this not be considered favor seeking or an outright bribe? Said hope. “How could it not be?” »
This is the first film directed by Brett Ratner since 2017, year several women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct. (Ratner has denied the accusations.) Rolling Stone reports that two-thirds of the film’s New York crew asked not to be officially credited in the film.
While Apple CEO Tim Cook attended a preview of “Melania” at the White House last weekend, “Melania” was not screened in advance for critics, and the reviews that followed were brutal. The documentary currently sits at 7% on review aggregator Metacriticindicating an “overwhelming dislike” and 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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New York Times Film Review Manohla Dargis described it as “a highly circumscribed and carefully staged chronicle of Mrs. Trump’s daily life” during the 20 days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration in 2025.
In a statement, Kevin Wilson, head of domestic film distribution for Amazon MGM, described this weekend as “an important first step in what we see as a long-term life cycle for the film and upcoming documentary series,” which he said will have a “significant lifespan” on Amazon’s Prime streaming service.
