{"id":260703,"date":"2026-01-24T00:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/260703\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:37:08","slug":"unwanted-melania-documentary-gets-another-boost-from-bezos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/260703\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwanted ‘Melania’ documentary gets another boost from Bezos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon MGM Studios is reportedly spending $35 million to promote the theatrical release of its upcoming documentary on Melania Trump, despite early indications that few people are interested in the film or its subject.<\/p>\n

Puck reported on Friday<\/a> that Amazon has committed to the \u201cinsanely high\u201d promotional budget, which comes in addition to the outsized $40 million that the company paid for the rights to the film.<\/p>\n

The outlet noted that current tracking in advance of the movie\u2019s Jan. 30 release projects a $5 million weekend at the box office. Puck reporter Matthew Belloni contrasted this with the much smaller promotional budget for the 2023 Taylor Swift documentary film \u201cTaylor Swift: The Eras Tour,\u201d which brought in more<\/a> than $93 million during\u00a0its opening weekend.<\/p>\n

Related |\u00a0Trump-defiled Kennedy Center will premiere cringy ‘Melania’ documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon has also purchased expensive ads for the movie that have aired during NFL broadcasts, hyped the film on the Las Vegas Sphere, and is advertising \u201cMelania\u201d\u00a0on billboards. The documentary will have a glitzy premiere<\/a> at the Kennedy Center (numerous artists have quit performing<\/a> there thanks to President Donald Trump etching his name on the building) and Melania Trump is scheduled<\/a> to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Amazon is spending lavishly on the first lady\u2019s vanity project while cutting jobs for American workers. According to Reuters<\/a>, the company\u00a0plans to lay off 30,000 corporate workers in a second round of firings following a purge\u00a0of 14,000 employees in October 2025.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
\nAmazon founder Jeff Bezos joined fellow billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Company founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, who is one of the five wealthiest people in the world, is firmly on Team Trump. He donated a reported $1 million<\/a> to Trump\u2019s inauguration last year, around the same time Amazon made the commitment to distribute the film.<\/p>\n

The payoffs echo other media kickbacks to Trump, including the decision by ABC News parent<\/a> Disney to settle a lawsuit brought against it by Trump, along with CBS News parent<\/a> Paramount, which also settled for millions.<\/p>\n

Bezos has also spent the past few years molding The Washington Post, which he owns, into a MAGA safe space. The boot-licking billionaire has directed<\/a> the editorial board to push a Republican-friendly agenda, leading to an exodus of multiple writers and contributors\u2014but eliciting praise from Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Despite the massive expenditure on the movie, Amazon has downplayed a key member of the production: director Brett Rattner. Rattner\u2019s previous projects include\u00a0the film \u201cRush Hour,\u201d although he has\u00a0not been involved<\/a> in a major Hollywood production since 2019.<\/p>\n

Related | America\u2019s largest media and tech moguls line up to kiss Trump\u2019s ass<\/a><\/p>\n

This is likely because in 2017 he faced alarming allegations of rape and sexual harassment<\/a> by multiple actresses. Rattner has denied the allegations but Warner Bros. announced it was severing ties with him<\/a> when the claims surfaced.<\/p>\n

The stories sound very similar to Donald Trump\u2019s history of sexual assault and harassment<\/a>. That could be another reason that outside of Bezos, very few people are interested in a\u00a0fluff film about the president\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazon MGM Studios is reportedly spending $35 million to promote the theatrical release of its upcoming documentary on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-260703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}