{"id":438652,"date":"2026-01-30T10:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/438652\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T10:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:09:10","slug":"melania-doc-premieres-in-d-c-as-director-brett-ratner-says-75-million-price-tag-wasnt-about-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/438652\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Melania\u2019 Doc Premieres in D.C. as Director Brett Ratner Says $75 Million Price Tag \u201cWasn\u2019t About Corruption\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHumanitarian.\u201d \u201cBrilliant.\u201d \u201cCompassionate.\u201d \u201cIntelligent.\u201d Just some of the words guests at the Kennedy Center premiere for Melania, the Amazon MGM Studios documentary about First Lady Melania Trump in the days before the 2025 presidential inauguration, used in their overly effusive praise for the subject of the film. \u201cUnprecedented\u201d was another word that came up specifically to describe the doc \u2014 which reportedly was bought for $40 million and given a marketing budget of $35 million<\/a> \u2014 at Thursday\u2019s gala screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to a number of performances at the Kennedy Center, and I\u2019ve never seen the whole center branded,\u201d noted one red carpet reporter. Indeed, the Kennedy Center (or the Trump-Kennedy Center, as it was referred to on the invite) had the First Lady\u2019s name printed across windows and walls, along with glowing letters across the steps and repeated everywhere. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was the 34-minutes President Donald Trump and the First Lady dedicated to answering questions on the black carpet, from both mainstream and right-wing media outlets. \u201cNice to see you,\u201d the president greeted reporters on the press line before announcing, \u201cTonight is about the First Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n

Asked about the influence his wife wields on him, the president said, \u201cShe\u2019s somebody that I count on. I speak to a lot of people. I listen to some and I don\u2019t listen to others, but she\u2019s very influential.\u201d In terms of the film\u2019s impact on those who were about to see the film, the First Lady told reporters she hoped the film would be inspirational, especially to other women. \u201cEverybody will connect on a certain level,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cTeenagers can go to see it, young women can go to see it, and be inspired that they could have a family and business, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the focus amongst the press was on the eye-opening deal Amazon struck with Melania Trump and her newly launched production company Muse Films. President Trump told reporters he \u201cwasn\u2019t involved,\u201d while the First Lady said the producers had approached several distributors and \u201cAmazon was the best because they agreed to do theaters all around the world.\u201d The film\u2019s director Brett Ratner \u2014 directing his first project since being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment at the height of the #MeToo movement \u2014 received far more pointed questions about whether he felt like he was part of an act of corporate corruption<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous, but it\u2019s OK, I\u2019ll answer. I 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 \u2014 documentaries \u2014 in the genre ever made,\u201d he said. \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, making a great movie for audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ratner, the project came as a surprise. \u201cI didn\u2019t plan it,\u201d he told The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something I was pitching. The First Lady and [producer] Marc Beckman asked me to come and consider this and I was so moved by how forthright Melania was and how thoughtful she was. She said, \u2018Brett, I want you to do this.\u2019 I said, \u2018But there\u2019s great documentary filmmakers.\u2019 She\u2019s like, \u2018Yeah, but I want it to be for the big screen. I want it to be a movie that audiences around the world can really enjoy.\u2019 So, I said, \u2018OK, well then I\u2019m right for the job.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was just a talking-heads documentary, there\u2019s many more great filmmakers that I can suggest to them for, but if you\u2019re going to do a movie for the big screen, for audiences around the world \u2014 make it something that\u2019s entertaining as well as informative and hopefully historical, I\u2019m the guy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In terms of how he would define success for the project, Ratner told THR, \u201cTo me, it\u2019s already a success, just the fact that Amazon has agreed to distribute this theatrically<\/a>. It\u2019s a different world today. When I was a kid, all I cared about was box office. \u2018How much money is this movie going to make?\u2019 And now it\u2019s like I\u2019ve already succeeded. I\u2019ve grown up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ratner wasn\u2019t the only guest defending the unprecedented price Amazon paid for the doc that opens in 1,500 theaters worldwide on Friday (so far to rather modest ticket sales<\/a>). South Africa won\u2019t be on the list of countries as the film was abruptly pulled from the schedule on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon is a business and they\u2019re in the business to make money, and I think they will make money on this film,\u201d said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. \u201cIt also has an inestimable value in my view, for its cultural impact. I mean, to have a documentary of a First Lady, a behind-the-scenes portrayal, I think there\u2019s great value to that and I think it transcends dollar figures. I think Amazon\u2019s done a good thing to the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Johnson, attending with his wife Kelly Lary, hoped viewers would glean what the two of them know from their personal relationship with the Trumps. \u201cShe\u2019s one of the most gracious people we know,\u201d he said of the First Lady. \u201cShe\u2019s very dignified and poised. She gets attacked all the time politically, but she takes it in stride and she\u2019s, I think, a great model for other women and a great representative for America. So, this will be a great film.\u201d Asked by THR if the timing of the premiere gave him pause \u2014 following ICE\u2019s shooting of protestor Alex\u00a0Pretti in Minneapolis and the nationwide outrage that has followed \u2014 Johnson brushed it off. \u201cNo. This was pre-planned and she can\u2019t account for weather events and madness in Congress. She\u2019s doing her thing, so we applaud it. We\u2019re here to support it and we\u2019re excited to be here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Johnson was not the only member of the Trump administration to attend the premiere<\/a>, with other guests including attendance were Pete Hegseth, Lee Zeldin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. \u201cShe\u2019s been portrayed as this one-dimensional character, but that\u2019s not who she is,\u201d Kennedy told THR. \u201cShe\u2019s been very kind to me and [wife] Cheryl [Hines] since we moved to Washington. Within the administration, she\u2019s been one of the primary motivators and drivers for my agenda for children\u2019s health, for better food. I\u2019ve worked with her a lot on foster care, which is her passion, and I\u2019m excited to learn more about her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy also defended the recent renaming of the building dedicated to his uncle President John F. Kennedy. \u201cThis center was launched after my uncle\u2019s death because of his commitment to the arts, to making America a cultural center. President Trump has that same ambition. He\u2019s spending a lot of time thinking about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI have bigger fish to fry. If I can save one kid, it\u2019s better than the name of a building.\u201d<\/p>\n

And though a Saturday screening<\/a> of the documentary at the White House drew criticism, the president did not seem bothered by the events of the past month. Asked how he believed the month of January would affect his legacy, he said, \u201cI think that the legacy is very strong right now. The safest country we\u2019ve had, the strongest military, doing better than we\u2019ve ever done before. I think it\u2019s going to be a great legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n

Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHumanitarian.\u201d \u201cBrilliant.\u201d \u201cCompassionate.\u201d \u201cIntelligent.\u201d Just some of the words guests at the Kennedy Center premiere for Melania, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[960,159529,12,88,21459,51879,163617,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-438652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-amazon","9":"tag-brett-ratner","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hollywood-reporter","13":"tag-kennedy-center","14":"tag-melania","15":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}