Melania Documentary Flops at Australian Box Office Amidst Controversy
A highly-anticipated, yet critically panned, documentary about former First Lady Melania Trump has experienced a disastrous opening weekend in Australia, signaling potential trouble for Amazon’s $106 million investment. The film debuted at No. 31 on the Australian box office charts, earning a meager $982 per screen.
The documentary, directed by Brett Ratner, was screened in 33 cinemas across the country, generating a total of $32,399 in revenue. This performance places it just below Wicked: For Good, which, despite being in cinemas for over two months, managed to earn $33,231 from 35 screens over the same period.
A worldwide embargo imposed by Amazon impacted the film’s opening weekend calculations. Because of this, the Australian debut missed out on one day of potential takings, with screenings beginning on Friday instead of the usual Thursday. However, industry analysts note that opening weekends are typically the strongest for films, particularly those lacking positive word-of-mouth – a significant hurdle for the Melania documentary, which has been widely criticized as a potential attempt by Amazon to gain favor with Donald Trump.
Internationally, the film’s performance has been mixed. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Melania was shown in 155 cinemas, taking £32,974 (approximately A$64,000) with a screen average of £212.80 (A$415). In the United States, the documentary achieved the strongest opening weekend of any documentary in over a decade, grossing US$7 million.
Despite this initial US success, the film’s substantial production cost – US$40 million to create and US$35 million to promote – presents a significant challenge. To recoup its investment, Melania will need to generate approximately US$100 million globally.
Former President Trump has publicly stated he “wasn’t involved” in negotiations regarding the documentary’s hefty price tag. Meanwhile, Melania Trump indicated that several distributors were considered, but “Amazon was the best because they agreed to do theatres all around the world.”
Ratner, who has largely remained out of the public eye following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement, dismissed suggestions that the film was intended as a favor to the Trumps, calling the claims “ridiculous.” He emphasized the film’s high production value, stating at the premiere, “This movie is one of the most expensive movies – documentaries – in the genre ever made… It wasn’t about getting rich.” He further explained that the substantial budget allowed him to assemble a top-tier crew and secure the best resources for the project.
Critical reception has been overwhelmingly negative. Xan Brooks, a critic for The Guardian, described the documentary as “dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing,” arguing that “there is a decent documentary to be made about the former model from Slovenia, but this one is unredeemable.”
Currently, the film holds a dismal 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of six out of 100 on Metacritic. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) shows a rating of 1.3/10 from over 32,000 votes – an improvement from its earlier score of 1.0, which briefly made it the lowest-rated movie on the platform. The film’s poor performance and scathing reviews suggest a challenging road ahead for Amazon’s ambitious, and expensive, project.
