The dress code for Lisa Copeland\u2019s big night out: what would Melania wear?<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old real estate entrepreneur and nine other friends were headed to Amazon\u2019s new documentary Melania, which debuted in theaters nationwide last week. \u201cWe all brought our best power suit,\u201d Copeland said, nodding to Melania Trump\u2019s penchant for neat, tailored menswear-inspired looks. But since she lives in Austin, Texas, Copeland put her own country-glam spin on it: black leather pants and a pearl jacket with diamond and pearl beading.<\/p>\n
As Copeland and her friends settled into their seats on opening night, they noticed members of a security detail lining the aisle of their AMC theater. Just before the film started, Cecilia Abbott, wife of Texas governor Greg Abbott, slipped into the front row, just ahead of them. \u201cIt was an event for us,\u201d Copeland said. \u201cIf you\u2019re a Republican, this is girls\u2019 night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening weekend of Melania Trump\u2019s documentary, about the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump\u2019s second inauguration and nothing beyond, told a tale of two Americas. Many film critics panned the film (the Guardian\u2019s own zero-star review<\/a> called it \u201ca gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest\u201d). For some, the project\u2019s astronomical price tag came off as a naked attempt by Amazon head Jeff Bezos to buy the support of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Melania takes a call. Photograph: Amazon<\/p>\n But, as a counter to what Trump voters might call \u201cthe coastal elites\u201d who gleefully shared<\/a> screenshots of empty cinema seating charts, the movie surpassed its very low expectations, bringing $7m<\/a> \u2013 not enough to recoup the $70m it cost to produce and market but enough to make it the top-performing documentary at the box office in a decade.<\/p>\n Former White House press secretary and current Fox host Kayleigh McEnany displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of how movie theaters work by proclaiming her mother\u2019s screening was \u201cstanding room only\u201d. \u201cWomanosphere<\/a>\u201d influencers, who preach a tradwife lifestyle, have urged followers to see the film. Katie Miller, podcast host and wife of Stephen Miller, blamed South Africa for pulling the film from theaters in protest of the Trump regime. \u201cOf course \u2013 since they are biased against white people,\u201d she wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a girl\u2019s girl and you really just want to look at … what [Melania has] done for the White House … it\u2019s a good movieLisa Copeland<\/p>\n Indeed, Variety reported the Melania opening weekend audience was 72% female and 83% over the age of 45, a demographic the outlet<\/a> called a \u201crarity at a time when the box office is driven by younger men\u201d. According to more data obtained by Variety, 75% of ticket buyers were white, 11% were Hispanic, and 4% were Black and Asian.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the kind of movie you go see if you voted for Trump,\u201d Copeland acknowledged. \u201cIf you\u2019re a girl\u2019s girl and you really just want to look at the history of it all and what [Melania has] done for the White House, versus politics, it\u2019s a good movie.\u201d<\/p>\n These Melania fans went in partly hoping for a Real Housewives-esque tell-all \u2013 something that, realistically, they were never going to get from a first lady who seemingly values privacy above all else. Instead they saw Melania doing her best Jackie Kennedy White House tour, though she at least played the part of letting her audience in on some secrets.<\/p>\n Copleland said she was \u201cpleasantly surprised\u201d by the documentary. The cinematography looked expensive. As a clotheshorse, Copeland loved peeking behind-the-scenes at Melania\u2019s inauguration gown dress fittings. Her friend Bristal Speciale, a 51-year-old Austinite who owns a land development company, felt Melania displayed \u201cvulnerability\u201d in a scene where she meets a prisoner of war\u2019s wife, and when she spoke about the loss of her mother in 2024. But Speciale was \u201choping to see some personal moments, warm and fuzzy with the family\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n Melania and Donald Trump. Photograph: Amazon<\/p>\n Kelsey Davis, a 36-year-old stay-at-home mother and content creator, saw the film near her home in Claremore, Oklahoma, with her aunt and aunt\u2019s best friend. She walked out of the theater \u2013 which she noted was \u201cpacked\u201d \u2013 feeling she learned more about Melania, also pointing to the scene about Melania\u2019s mother. But she thinks the film could have looked beyond the first lady\u2019s \u201clittle smirk\u201d to probe her true character.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish we got to see a little bit more of her as Donald Trump\u2019s wife, not so much her as the first lady,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThere were still several funny moments in there [like] when Trump was working on his speech, and she insisted that he add something specific. At first he said no, then she demanded it, and he ends up adding it into his speech. I thought it was hilarious, because during his speech, he looked at her and smirked. And she was super cute, because as a wife myself, we always put our two cents in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can tell in the movie how much they care for each other and love each other,\u201d said Eva Grizzle, referencing one scene where Trump calls his wife \u201cbeautiful\u201d. The 43-year-old credit union worker from Lakeland, Florida, has \u201cgreat admiration for the first lady\u201d and saw Melania last week.<\/p>\n I know there\u2019s all types of criticism coming from the left … I don\u2019t think the movie itself is politicalMartha Jenkins<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Copeland liked that Melania \u201cwas really about her\u201d, she said. \u201cPresident Trump was barely in the film. I liked that he didn\u2019t try to make it about him.\u201d<\/p>\n Melania\u2019s relationship with Donald has been a source of endless skepticism. She stood by her husband after the Access Hollywood tape leak, Stormy Daniels affair allegations and E Jean Carroll<\/a> sexual abuse case. But she famously avoids holding her husband\u2019s hand in public and even swatted it away during a 2017 visit to Tel Aviv. (In her memoir, Melania wrote<\/a> that the swat was actually her \u201cgently wav[ing] away his attempt\u201d to hold her hand.)<\/p>\n Likewise, the specifics of Melania\u2019s role in the White House have been vague to the point of parody. After Trump\u2019s first inauguration, she took months to hire staff and move from her home in Manhattan to Washington DC. Her few forays into the spotlight were often ridiculed, such as when she wore a colonial-era pith hat<\/a> on a tour of Africa, or was caught on a secret recording complaining about Christmas decorations. In 2025, she made cryptocurrency<\/a> and little else \u2013 besides this documentary, which she executive produced \u2013 her focus.<\/p>\n Martha Jenkins, who did not share her age, and Judy Barlow, who is in her 60s, are the president and vice-president of the National Federation of Republican Women, a political action group that has existed since 1938. They saw the film with other members while in Nashville for a conference. Both women have met Donald but not Melania, though they have been in the same room as her: during the 2024 inauguration, which they attended inside the Capitol Rotunda.<\/p>\n The event was held indoors due to bitterly cold temperatures; Jenkins and Barlow remember being worried about safety, thinking back to the attempted assassination of Trump during his 2024 campaign. \u201cEverything that [Melania] brought forth in the movie really was true to what happened at the inauguration,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cWithout her coming out and saying it, you could tell that the [assassination attempt] weighed heavily upon her, because she was very, very worried about her husband and her entire family.\u201d<\/p>\n Melania on a plane. Photograph: Amazon<\/p>\n Melania (the film) has a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but a critics\u2019 score of only 6%. Some on the left, including Jimmy Kimmel, speculated that rightwing bots may have juiced the numbers. But Rotten Tomatoes\u2019 owner said in a statement<\/a> to Variety that \u201cthere has been no bot manipulation\u201d. Rumors have also swirled<\/a> around nebulous \u201cfake ticket sales\u201d. (Jenkins\u2019s group saw the film later in the evening after a group dinner, in an almost empty theater.) But Puck reported that representatives for Amazon, Regal and AMC Theaters \u201cdid not experience unusual block purchases of tickets\u201d for the film.<\/p>\n \u201cI know there\u2019s all types of criticism coming from the left,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cI don\u2019t think the movie itself is political.\u201d The National Federation of Republican Women posted a picture of some New Jersey chapter members attending a screening on Facebook; they later took it down after a flurry of negative comments. \u201cThe film has been made political by people who, frankly, hate President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n It did not help that Melania debuted the day more Epstein files were released \u2013 and its director Brett Ratner, who had not worked since being accused of sexual assault and harassment during Hollywood\u2019s #MeToo movement, appeared in a photo with the disgraced financier. (Ratner has said<\/a> he \u201cdidn\u2019t have a personal relationship\u201d with Epstein and had denied the #MeToo allegations.)<\/p>\n Davis was appreciative that the many firestorms surrounding Trump\u2019s second term did not make it into the doc. \u201cThe film didn\u2019t show much about all the hot topics going on with ICE and the borders, obviously, because it was filmed before then. It was kind of a breath of fresh air, because Melania lets her husband deal with that, and she just sticks to her role, which I have a lot of respect for,\u201d Davis said. She also noted that the film \u201cshowcased several immigrants\u201d, including Melania herself and Herv\u00e9 Pierre, Melania\u2019s stylist, who was born in France. \u201cI think that was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Angelina, a 25-year-old member of the Palm Beach Young Republicans<\/a> Club who has visited Mar-a-Lago and met other members of the Trump family, has not been to a movie theater \u201cin years\u201d. But she rolled up to a crowded screening with some family members, who had to split up to find seats.<\/p>\n Angelina, who did not want to share her last name to protect her privacy at work, agreed that Melania is not \u201ca very politics-focused\u201d film. \u201cLike 70% of the documentary was Melania with her [fashion] designers, her day-to-day,\u201d she said. When inauguration day did arrive on screen, she said the whole theater broke out in applause: \u201cThere was a lot of clapping, I will tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n Due to Melania\u2019s initial success, Amazon plans<\/a> to open it in 300 more movie theaters for its second weekend. That means it will now play on 2,000 screens across the country during Super Bowl weekend \u2013 a historically slow weekend at the movies, as Americans stay home to watch the game. Puerto Rican rap superstar Bad Bunny is set to perform at the half-time show, much to Maga\u2019s chagrin<\/a>. It may be Melania (the film\u2019s) stiffest competition yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dress code for Lisa Copeland\u2019s big night out: what would Melania wear? 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