{"id":402639,"date":"2026-02-01T17:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T17:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/402639\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T17:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T17:50:07","slug":"melania-film-earns-7m-in-us-strongest-documentary-debut-in-over-a-decade-melania-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/402639\/","title":{"rendered":"Melania film earns $7m in US, strongest documentary debut in over a decade | Melania Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon\u2019s Melania Trump documentary<\/a> has reportedly beaten box office expectations and recorded the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade, taking $7m<\/a> at the US box office during its lavishly-promoted opening weekend. Simultaneously, though, Melania fell substantially short of turning a profit because it cost $40m to make and $35m to promote.<\/p>\n

And Amazon<\/a> \u2013 which recently cut 16,000 corporate jobs \u2013 has been hit with criticism that making the documentary about the first lady, and paying so highly for it, was little more than a ploy to curry favor with her husband, Donald Trump, during his second presidency.<\/p>\n

The film, which follows Melania Trump<\/a> as she prepared to re-enter the White House in early 2025, was beaten at the box office by two horror films: Iron Lung and Rachel McAdams\u2019s Send Help. But it managed to beat out action film Shelter.<\/p>\n

Melania registered its earnings by targeting older conservatives and has been noted for carefully playing to subjects close to what are said to be interests of her husband\u2019s fans: Patriotism, Christianity and the importance of family.<\/p>\n

Deadline said Melania was forecast to make $5m on its debut weekend. The Hollywood Reporter said that those predictions for the Brett Ratner-directed documentary were \u201cbased on empty, or nearly empty, seat maps in cinemas across the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The outlet estimated that the film had done well with conservatives in the southern US, specifically women over the age of 55, who made up 72% of the opening-day audience.<\/p>\n

EntTelligence, a research firm, estimated that rural theaters would contribute roughly 46% of the opening-weekend box office \u2013 and those in Republican counties would contribute about 53% of ticket sales. Top box office states for the film included the conservative stalwart states of Florida and Texas.<\/p>\n

Melania, though, has received overwhelmingly negative critical reviews. The Guardian judged it to be \u201cdispiriting, deadly and unrevealing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a decent documentary to be made about the former model from Slovenia, but this one is unredeemable,\u201d the Guardian\u2019s one-star review said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter described it as an \u201cexpensive propaganda doc\u201d and \u201ca film that fawns so lavishly over its subject that you feel downright unpatriotic not gushing over it\u201d. In trailing credits, it added, the first lady\u2019s achievements are rolled \u201cin such laudatory fashion that North Korea would blush\u201d.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump recently told reporters \u201cwasn\u2019t involved\u201d in negotiations over the documentary $75m price tag. Melania Trump said the producers had approached several distributors, and \u201cAmazon was the best because they agreed to do theaters all around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s director Brett Ratner \u2013 who had otherwise largely retreated from Hollywood after numerous sexual misconduct allegations during the #MeToo movement \u2013 was pointedly asked at the Melania premiere if he felt he was part of a larger quid pro quo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous, but it\u2019s OK, I\u2019ll answer,\u201d he said. \u201cI can tell you right now, if we were audited and they said, \u2018How much was spent on this movie?\u2019 This movie is one of the most expensive movies \u2013 documentaries \u2013 in the genre ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about getting rich. I mean, I think the Trumps are wealthy and successful enough. This is about giving me the ability to hire the best crew in the world, to not only score the film with the best composer \u2026 I mean, when you see the movie, you\u2019ll go, \u2018Oh, we see where the money went now.\u2019 This wasn\u2019t about corruption. Melania only cared about one thing \u2013 making a great movie for audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the same day Melania opened in theaters, Ratner appeared in photos published by Trump\u2019s justice department as part of a release of 3m files pertaining to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The photos<\/a> show Ratner in pictures alongside Epstein, including while wrapping his arms around a woman between them.<\/p>\n

Ratner has not publicly commented.<\/p>\n

People mentioned in or seen in pictures included in the so-called Epstein files have not been implicated in or convicted of crimes. Many notable people who associated with Epstein, a former friend of Trump, have denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s Melania Trump documentary has reportedly beaten box office expectations and recorded the strongest start of any documentary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-402639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}