Box Office: "Melania" Heads for $8 Million Opening, the Best Showing in a Decade for a Documentary...

[PeaceWave]

Can America really be this stark raving crazy?

Melania Trump's new Amazon MGM documentary — the most expensive in history — is even beating out Jason Statham's new action for a third-place finish behind 'Send Help' and 'Iron Lung' after galvanizing older conservative females and earning an A-CinemaScore.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-melania-opening-weekend-1236490092/

Following a campaign targeting targeting older conservatives that was topped off by Thursday night’s premiere in Washington D.C. attended by President Donald Trump and packed with his acolytes, the first lady’s documentary Melania is opening to the best numbers in a decade for a documentary with a better-than-expected $8 million or more.

If that sunny forecast holds, the film will come in No. 3 behind fellow newcomers Send Help and Iron Lung after icing out Jason Statham’s new action pic, Shelter. No one saw that coming, with many suggesting Melania was a bomb before it even opened based on empty, or nearly empty, seat maps in cinemas across the country. The pic is galvanizing conservatives in the South and South-central part of the country, and specifically older females over the age of 55, who made up 72 percent of the opening-day audience. And a stunning 78 percent of all ticket buyers were 55 and older.

[Blue Full Moon]

1. Both can't be true.

High grossing (maybe the content) and no ticket sells. I suspect that someone is buying the tickets like Musk buying his own cars to get the refund from the government scam.

[walkingman]

2. If this is real...big if...US movie goers have very poor taste.

[flvegan]

3. If true, I'm guessing Trump flunkies bulk bought hundreds/thousands of tickets.

Someone's super PAC buying them up like the shitty conservative "Bestseller" books. One day someone finds 5,000 copies in a shed somewhere.

[senseandsensibility]

4. Didn't it cost eighty million to make?

And I don't believe the numbers anyway.

[PeaceWave]

20. I thought I heard that Bezos paid Melania $40 million just for the rights to her story.

[Johonny]

5. A lot of empty seats watching this shit

[dweller]

6. well then

✌🏻

[demmiblue]

7. Mildly curious... are you going to self-delete this OP like all the other OP's you have self-deleted?

[Americanme]

8. The economy must be booming!

All these old conservative folks have money to waste on a trashy movie, just to make their cult leader happy.

[Takket]

9. documentaries rarely get released in theaters

so saying it had the best opening for a doc in ten years isn't saying much lol

and considering about 25% of the country literally consider her husband a god, only turning out 8 million dollars from a cult isn't saying much either.

[Johonny]

12. There have been a fair number of RW cult

Movies that make 10 to 15 million. But they documentaries in recent years but they cost at most 2 million to make. What's unbelievable is this cost north of 75 million. It will need to bring in 150 million to earn a profit. I get Bezo and RW cult gonna snap up tickets and maybe even watch it this week. But this will need to make 8 million for like 20 weeks in a row to earn its money. No one think this happens. Within a week this slinks off most movie theaters play lists and hangs around only in the redest of cities. If thus makes the normal Desuza film, it heads off around 15 million.

[musette_sf]

10. Pretty sure this ratings system

works something like the RWNJ “bestseller” book scam:

https://nomadicpolitics.blogspot.com/2014/11/cooking-books-how-conservative-best.html?m=1

[Yagoberto]

11. The media is giving it free coverage

They have reviews of it in top news, like it’s news.

[jmowreader]

13. What they are not telling you...

It cost Amazon MGM $70 million to make and release this film. Hollywood doesn't consider a film successful unless it takes in at least twice what it cost to make...so, let's say this movie does $25 million this weekend, shrinks to $2MM-$3MM next weekend and leaves theaters after that. $28 million on a $70 million investment is a bomb big enough to drop on the enemy.

[JHB]

14. Do we even trust these numbers?

And, as others have noted, what exactly is the "tickets bought online" to "butts in those seats" ratio? Normally it would pretty much be 1:1. Any significant deviation from that indicates attempts to manipulate the numbers.

[surfered]

15. Big donors buying tickets, but not attending?

Like book sales?

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

16. a theater worker reported seeing older women, dressed in sparkly patriotic garb, seeing the movie in groups.

like it's their Barbie movie

[John1956PA]

17. Off point, but my favorite pseudo documentary is "The Hellstrom Chronicle" (1971)

That film won the Oscar for best documentary of 1972. It contains excellent photography of insect colonies. The immensity of insect inhabitation in our world is well presented. The "pseudo" element involves a narrator (claiming to be an expert) proclaiming that his warnings of humankind's impending annihilation at the mandibles of insects have been ignored. That aspect of the film is like an April Fool prank, but it is entertaining its own way.

I would rather take my chances with insects than with the Trump regime.

[struggle4progress]

18. Melania Lands Single-Digit

ByPaul Tassi
Jan 31, 2026, 09:28am EST

No doubt Melania will prove to be one of the most bizarre stories in film in 2026, the documentary about the First Lady that was purchased by Amazon for an exorbitant fee, $40 to acquire and $35 million to market. Now, the movie is live, and the gap between critic scores and audience scores is vast. Assuming you believe those audience scores are real, however.

As it stands, Melania has a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning only 6% of critics liked the film. In this case, that’s…one of them. Even more impressively, Melania has a 6 on Metacritic, but that’s a 6/100, because that’s a site that takes into account the actual review scores, not just a thumbs up or thumbs down ...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/01/31/melania-lands-single-digit-rotten-tomatoes-metacritic-scores/

[struggle4progress]

19. What critics are saying

Anthony Robledo
USA TODAY
Updated Jan. 30, 2026, 7:10 p.m. ET

... "She talks about a reverence for the military, but Ratner doesn't show her conversations with soldiers. It's a strange filmmaking choice for a documentary, though maybe one that's by design."

Variety's review echoes this sentiment, arguing that the documentary "never comes to life" and is far too "orchestrated and airbrushed and stage-managed that it barely rises to the level of a shameless infomercial." ...

... The Atlantic's review emphasized that the documentary is ultimately lackluster, quipping, "Ratner seems desperate to find action, but there is none. The pace is stultifying."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/01/30/melania-trump-movie-reviews-rotten-tomatoes-score/88438844007/