Amazon’s ‘Melania’ documentary makes $7M on opening weekend

“Melania,” a documentary centred on First Lady Melania Trump, is performing well above expectations at the box office, with early Sunday projections indicating it will generate approximately $7.04 million during its opening weekend.

The film is expected to finish third overall for the weekend, trailing the Sam Raimi–directed thriller Send Help, which is projected to earn $20 million, and Iron Lung, a video game adaptation created by YouTuber Mark Fischbach, widely known as Markiplier, which is estimated to bring in $17.8 million.

Amazon paid $40 million to acquire “Melania” and is reportedly spending an additional $35 million on marketing and promotion. While the documentary has exceeded pre-release forecasts that placed its opening weekend between $3 million and $5 million, it is still unlikely to turn a profit during its theatrical run.

Amazon’s winning bid reportedly exceeded the next highest offer from Disney by $26 million, prompting criticism that the acquisition may have been motivated less by box office potential and more by political considerations tied to the Trump administration. Veteran film executive Ted Hope, who worked at Amazon between 2015 and 2020, told The New York Times that the project “has to be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing.”

“How can it not be equated with currying favour or an outright bribe?” Hope said. “How can that not be the case?”

The film also marks the first directing credit for Brett Ratner since 2017, when several women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct — allegations Ratner has denied. According to reporting from Rolling Stone, roughly two-thirds of the New York–based crew working on “Melania” requested not to be formally credited in the final film.

Although Tim Cook attended a preview screening of “Melania” at the White House last weekend, the documentary was not shown to critics ahead of release. Reviews published after its debut have been overwhelmingly negative. The film currently holds a 7% score on Metacritic, signalling “overwhelming dislike,” and a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis described the documentary as “a very circumscribed and carefully stage-managed chronicle of Mrs Trump’s day-to-day life,” focusing on the 20 days leading up to President Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

In a statement, Amazon MGM head of domestic theatrical distribution Kevin Wilson characterised the opening weekend as “an important first step in what we see as a long-tail lifecycle for both the film and the forthcoming docu-series.” He added that the project is expected to have a “significant life” on Amazon’s Prime streaming platform.