TOUGH BREAK

‘Melania’ Movie Admits Defeat After Humiliating Box Office Bomb

Amazon insists that it will “recoup” its millions once the documentary hits streaming.

If you missed the first lady’s vanity documentary in theaters, you will soon be able to stream the ill-advised project at home.

Melania, an Amazon-MGM production directed by Brett Ratner, will debut on Amazon Prime on Monday, Mar. 9, less than six weeks after its big Kennedy Center premiere.

Chronicling the first lady’s life in the 20 days before her husband was inaugurated for the second time, the doc was released in hundreds of theaters but proved to be a flop.

In its opening weekend, Melania exceeded box-office expectations, earning roughly $7 million after its Jan. 30 release, making it one of the highest openings for a non-musical documentary in a decade. But given its massive budget, it needed much more to make it a financial success.

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Other indicators proved that the film wasn’t the box-office hit that MAGA desperately wanted it to be. In the U.K., the doc made just £32,974 (approximately $44,604) in its opening weekend across 155 cinemas. South Africa, meanwhile, pulled the film from the country’s theaters before it was even released.

After that opening weekend in the U.S., Melania plummeted quickly.

In its third weekend, the doc saw a 62.3-percent drop in attendance. By its fourth week, the documentary had disappeared from the box office entirely, not appearing in IMDb’s top 38 films.

The film is one of the most expensive of its kind, reportedly costing a whopping $75 million.

Amazon had previously said it intends to recoup costs when the movie hits streaming. Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM’s distribution chief, said that the documentary’s strong opening weekend was seen as “a critical first moment that validates our holistic distribution strategy, building awareness, engagement, and provides momentum ahead of the film’s eventual debut on Prime Video.”

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The studio further insisted that it plans ”to recoup some of the cost of the film when it streams on Prime Video through advertising and Prime signups."

Melania earned a total of $16.6 million worldwide. Its international earnings made up just $291,000 of that total, according to Box Office Mojo. The film, which didn’t fare well with critics, was released in over 2,000 theaters.

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Meera NavlakhaEntertainment Reporter

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