{"id":276159,"date":"2026-02-02T00:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/276159\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T00:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:56:09","slug":"melania-doc-beats-box-office-expectations-despite-criticism-poor-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/276159\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Melania’ doc beats box office expectations despite criticism, poor reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMelania: Twenty Days to History\u201d won over fans of the first lady at the box office this weekend, surpassing the initial opening weekend expectations to generate $7 million.<\/p>\n

The Amazon MGM Studios film, which rolled out in over 1,500 theaters in North America, was estimated to make $5 million, which would have made it a relatively solid opening by documentary standards. But after beating expectations, it\u2019s now the strongest start for a nonmusic documentary in over a decade, according to box office analysts.<\/p>\n

It took the No. 3 overall spot for the weekend, following YouTuber Markiplier\u2019s self-financed film \u201cIron Lung\u201d and Sam Raimi\u2019s \u201cSend Help.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 head of domestic theatrical distribution, lauded the documentary\u2019s \u201cstrong start,\u201d it is still too early to call it a big win for Amazon.<\/p>\n

The studio paid a whopping $40 million to acquire the project, which was helmed by filmmaker Brett Ratner. The studio also spent roughly $35 million<\/a> on the marketing campaign, an eye-popping sum for a political documentary. Promotion for the film included projecting its trailer on the Las Vegas Sphere and designing a commemorative popcorn bucket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The larger-than-expected haul comes despite reviewers on Letterboxd trashing<\/a> the film (before seeing it), and others online sharing screenshots of theaters<\/a> full of unsold tickets in cities. Critics have also largely panned the film, with outlets like The Hollywood Reporter calling it an<\/a> \u201cexpensive propaganda doc\u201d offering an \u201cup-close and not-so-personal portrait\u201d of the first lady.<\/p>\n

Still, moviegoers gave the film, which was backed by the White House,<\/a> a generous A when polled by CinemaScore and a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/a><\/p>\n

The top-performing markets for \u201cMelania\u201d included Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta and West Palm Beach, according to box office analysts who shared audience metrics with NBC News. Donald Trump won<\/a> Texas, Arizona and Florida in the 2024 presidential election. The documentary also mostly attracted female moviegoers, who made up about 70% of audiences.<\/p>\n

An estimated 600,000 moviegoers saw the film over the weekend, according to EntTelligence data provided to CNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In January of last year, when Amazon licensed the film, the studio said it picked up the documentary as well as a subsequent docuseries for the streaming service, \u201cfor one reason and one reason only \u2014 because we think customers are going to love it.\u201d The deal occurred shortly after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis momentum is an important first step in what we see as a long-tail lifecycle for both the film and the forthcoming docu-series, extending well beyond the theatrical window and into what we believe will be a significant run for both on our service,\u201d Wilson said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, the White House held a private early screening of the film for guests before Amazon rolled out the black carpet for the documentary\u2019s Washington, D.C., premiere at the Kennedy Center on Thursday.<\/p>\n

When asked by NBC News about who the film was for, the first lady said, \u201cEverybody will connect on a certain level. Teenagers can go to see, young women can go to see and be inspired that they could have a family and business, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premiere was attended by friends of the Trump family, members of the Trump administration and those involved with the film, including Ratner and Marc Beckman, a senior adviser to the first lady and the husband of Melania Trump\u2019s friend Alice Roi.<\/p>\n

Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women in 2017 but has denied the allegations and was never charged. The director has become a fixture in Trump\u2019s circle and spent a significant amount of time living at Mar-a-Lago while shooting the film, according to a source close to the first lady.<\/p>\n

In November, Semafor reported<\/a> that a push from the president led Paramount Skydance to agree to distribute Ratner\u2019s \u201cRush Hour 4.\u201d The president\u2019s involvement was not confirmed by NBC News.<\/p>\n

In his Instagram stories over the weekend, Ratner reshared a post from the X account End Wokeness that read, \u201cThis is why nobody trusts \u2018the critics.\u2019\u201d A screenshot of the Rotten Tomatoes scores was attached.<\/p>\n

Isabel Yip is a news associate for NBC News.<\/p>\n

Daniel Arkin, Rebecca Keegan, Chloe Melas and Monica Alba contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMelania: Twenty Days to History\u201d won over fans of the first lady at the box office this weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-276159","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\/276159","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=276159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}