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

[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.