‘Melania’ doc mocked by the famous Four Seasons Total Landscaping
“Another world exclusive happened today in our famous Four Seasons Total Landscaping lot!!!” the company wrote on X alongside a photo of their entirely empty parking lot.
“We gathered together all the people who have gone to see the Melania movie. Here’s a photo to prove it.”
In November 2020, the Trump campaign accidentally booked a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a small landscaping company in Philadelphia, instead of the Four Seasons Hotel.
The event took place in a parking lot between a crematorium and a sex shop, shortly after Joe Biden was projected to win the election, and became the subject of international ridicule.
Tom Murray30 January 2026 13:12
Scenes from the Vue cinema in Westfield Stratford City, London
The Independent’s Ellie Muir is currently at the Vue cinema in Westfield Stratford City in London, where she is among a total of five people taking in an early afternoon showing.
The early afternoon screening of ‘Melania’ at the Vue Westfield Stratford City was almost entirely empty (Ellie Muir/The Independent)
Tom Murray30 January 2026 12:59
‘Melania’ ticket sales suggest weak box office opening
The new documentary will come nowhere near to recouping the $40 million Amazon MGM paid for it, according to an analysis of theater sales for its opening weekend.
Amazon reportedly spent an additional $35 million to market the film.
Deadline reported that Melania has made close to $1 million in pre-sales, which puts it on course for a $5 million box office take on its opening weekend.
An analysis of opening-day ticket sales suggests a muted — though not nonexistent — response nationwide. At the first screening at the AMC in The Grove mall in Los Angeles, 15 of 132 seats had been sold as of Thursday afternoon. At the Alamo Drafthouse in New York City, just two of 31 seats had sold for the afternoon screening, but 14 had sold for an evening screening.
Ticket sales are much stronger in more conservative areas, including Orange County, California, Houston, Texas and Miami, Florida. Research by Wired magazine found that only two screenings in the U.S. were completely sold out: one at an AMC in Independence, Missouri, and one at an AMC in Vero Beach, Florida. Vero Beach is around an hour’s drive north of the president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Tom Murray30 January 2026 12:23
Watch: Trump showers Melania with praise at star-studded documentary premiereTrump showers Melania with praise at star-studded documentary premiere
Tom Murray30 January 2026 12:02
Jimmy Kimmel mocks ‘Melania’ documentaryJimmy Kimmel mocks Melania Trump’s new documentary
Tom Murray30 January 2026 11:40
What ‘Melania’ tells us about the First Lady and her marriage
If the trailer suggests a partnership in lockstep, the geography of their lives suggests something far more detached.
Alex Hannaford talks to the author of Golden Handcuffs, who says being the wife of the US president wasn’t something Melania signed up for.
Tom Murray30 January 2026 11:21
Why Brett Ratner was the only man for the Melania documentary
The director, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, lost a lucrative production deal during the #MeToo era.
Now, as Kevin E G Perry reports, he is plotting a Hollywood comeback with an expensive documentary about the First Lady and Trump-backed plans to revive his most famous franchise.
Tom Murray30 January 2026 11:08
Mainstream press shut out of screening
Variety reports that journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP, Vanity Fair and dozens of other outlets were allowed to ask questions outside but were not permitted access to the screening itself.
Per the publication, the only press invited in to see the film were Dan Ball and Peyton Drew of the far-right news channel One America News.
(AFP/Getty)
Jacob Stolworthy30 January 2026 10:08
Trump hits out at Obama when questioned over documentary cost
Asked on the premiere’s event’s black carpet what he would say to those who have been critical of the fact that Amazon paid $40m to acquire the rights for Melania, President Trump replied:
“Well, I think they’d have to go and ask President Obama, who got paid a lot of money and hasn’t done anything.”
President Obama signed a production deal with Netflix in 2018 that has produced various film projects including American Factory, Leave the World Behind, and Crip Camp.
Jacob Stolworthy30 January 2026 09:45
Barron, Ivanka and Eri Trump skip premiere
The 19-year-old son of Melania and Donald Trump didn’t attend his mother’s big night – despite appearing in the documentary – but was thanked by Melania in a speech ahead of the screening.
Ivanka, Trump’s daughter from his previous marriage to Ivana Trump, was also a no-show alongside her husband Jared Kushner, with the president’s other kids, Eric and Tiffany, also absent.
Jacob Stolworthy30 January 2026 09:25