Amazon’s ‘Melania’ Documentary Makes $7 Million in Opening Weekend

“Melania,” a documentary about first lady Melania Trump, is beating box office expectations, with Sunday estimates suggesting it will earn $7.04 million in its opening weekend.

The documentary comes in third overall for the weekend, behind the Sam Raimi-directed thriller “Send Help” ($20 million) and “Iron Lung” ($17.8 million), a video game adaptation from YouTuber Mark Fischbach (better known as Markiplier).

Amazon paid $40 million to acquire “Melania” and is reportedly spending $35 million promoting it. So even if the documentary beats pre-release estimates predicting a $3 million to $5 million opening weekend, it’s unlikely to turn a profit in theaters.

Amazon’s bid came in at $26 million ahead of the second-highest bidder, Disney, prompting critics to suggest the deal had less to do with the film’s box office potential and more to do with winning over the Trump administration. Veteran film executive Ted Hope, who worked at Amazon from 2015 to 2020, told The New York Times that the film “has to be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing.”

“How can that not be equated with a favor or an outright bribe?” Hope said. “How can that not be the case?”

This is the first film directed by Brett Ratner since 2017, when several women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct. (Ratner has denied those allegations.) Rolling Stone reports that two-thirds of “Melania’s” New York crew asked not to be formally credited in the film.

While Apple CEO Tim Cook attended a preview of “Melania” at the White House last weekend, “Melania” was not previewed for critics, and the subsequent reviews have been brutal. The documentary currently holds a 7% on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating “overwhelming dislike”, and a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.

New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis described it as “a highly scripted and carefully staged chronicle of Mrs. Trump’s daily life” during the 20 days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration in 2025.

In a statement, Amazon MGM’s head of domestic theatrical distribution, Kevin Wilson, described this weekend as “an important first step in what we see as a long-tail life cycle for both the film and the upcoming docu-series,” which he predicted will have a “significant life” on Amazon’s Prime streaming service.