'Melania,' panned by some film critics, opens with strong ticket sales for a documentary

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JAKE COYLE
Updated 11:27 AM CST, February 1, 2026
Leer en español

NEW YORK (AP) — Promoted by President Donald Trump as “a must watch,” the Melania Trump documentary “Melania” debuted with a better-than-expected $7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The release of “Melania” was unlike any seen before. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the rights, plus some $35 million to market it, making it the most expensive documentary ever. Directed by Brett Ratner, who had been exiled from Hollywood since 2017, the film about the first lady debuted in 1,778 theaters in the midst of Trump’s turbulent second term.

While the result would be a flop for most films with such high costs, “Melania” was a success by documentary standards. It’s the best opening weekend for a documentary, outside of concert films, in 14 years. Going into the weekend, estimates ranged from $3 million to $5 million.

But there was little to compare “Melania” to, given that presidential families typically eschew in-office memoir or documentary releases to avoid the appearance of capitalizing on the White House. The film chronicles Melania Trump over 20 days last January, leading up to Trump’s second inauguration.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/box-office-melania-trump-send-help-e200bb50d83dd910d079b671bdf79a2c

[msongs]

1. and how many actual butts in seats nt

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. So..... they expected no one

and when six or seven show up, that's "better than expected"?

Would there even have been that many if not for paying morons to go?

[NewHendoLib]

3. pretty much panned by ALL critics.

[usonian]

4. If it's a documentary, why are they renting raincoats at the front door?

(satire)


Don't forget the upcoming Trump Memorial Library. CAN'T WAIT.

[RockRaven]

5. "for a documentary" doing heroic heavy lifting there...

"Well, it's a flop by those budget standards, but great revenue for a documentary" -- DOCUMENTARIES NEVER COST THIS MUCH, so measure it by the budget not the film category.

To give a sense of the aberrant scale of cost difference we're talking about:
James Cameron's documentary about the Titanic, Ghosts of the Abyss, using cutting-edge custom-built submersibles/ROVs to film the actual wreckage at the bottom of the ocean... Budget $13M.
March of the Penguins, a film shot in Antarctica which means hostile conditions and hellacious logistics... Budget $8M.
Free Solo, an Oscar winning documentary in the late 2010s about free climber Alex Honnold doing the first ever free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite... Budget $2M.



But, yeah, $7M, this country has a hell of a lot of fart-sniffing worms in it.

[global1]

6. Did Tr**p Get His Rich Friends To Stack The Deck?.....

Did he get them to stuff the ticket boxes?

Did they buy up seats. Give out free tickets to the homeless to fill the seats?

I find it hard to believe anything they tell us now.

[Klarkashton]

7. How many tickets did guys like musk buy?

[SunSeeker]

8. A lot of those sales were to journalists and movie critics, since no free screenings were given to the press.

Watch what happens next weekend, after movie critics are no longer buying tickets.

And unlike regular documentaries, which are made on a tiny budget with no marketing, this had the production costs of a major feature film, the most for any documentary in history, including $40 Million in licensing fees (bribes) paid to the Trumps and $35 Million on marketing alone. This movie would have to make well over $75 Million at the box office just to break even. https://www.military.com/feature/2026/01/29/why-40-million-melania-trump-documentary-raising-eyebrows.html#:~:text=First%20Lady%20Documentary%20Has%20Blockbuster,feature%2Dlength%20documentaries%20ever%20command.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Only $215 million more

and she’ll catch up with Fahrenheit 9/11.

[Seinan Sensei]

10. Dollars to donuts those ticket-sale numbers

... came-about the same way some book-authors tried to buy their way onto the NY Times bestsellers list -- by buying their own books.

Authors who themselves bought scads of their own books (to boost their bestseller ratings, some allege) include Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney.

Oh, and looky there -- the author of The Art of the Deal had his organization buy "tens of thousands of copies themselves." I'm shocked. Shocked!
(https://bookriot.com/books-that-bought-their-way-to-the-new-york-times-bestsellers-list/)