‘Melania’ documentary beats expectations at box office

Despite a brutal critical reception, “Melania,” the documentary about the first lady released on Jan. 30, outperformed expectations in its opening weekend.

“Melania” earned more than $7 million at the domestic U.S. box office, the highest opening for a nonconcert documentary in decades. Most recently, the best-performing film in the same genre was Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke’s “After Death,” which opened at about $5 million domestically in 2023. With an opening box office of almost $24 million, Michael Moore’s 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11” remains the highest-grossing political documentary.

Critics, however, have been less kind to “Melania.” The documentary has received an aggregate rating of 10% among professional critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (which is owned by Versant, MS NOW’s parent company), and negative reviews from major news outlets abound. Writing for MS NOW, media critic Jen Chaney said that the film is “so devoid of substance that it feels wrong to call it a documentary” and wrote that “this thing is basically ‘Let Them Eat Cake: The Movie,’” invoking Marie Antoinette, the French queen beheaded during the revolution.

Still, the film about the model-turned-political figure found its audience. Media analytics company Comscore reported that roughly 72% of Melania’s audience during opening weekend was women, and 72% was over the age of 55. The majority of the moviegoers were also white.

Directed by Brett Ratner in his first film since he faced accusations of sexual abuse in 2017 (allegations he has denied), “Melania” outperformed expectations out of the gate but has far to go before it becomes profitable: Amazon’s MGM Studios paid $40 million to license the film and another $35 million to promote it.

“We’re very encouraged by the strong start and positive audience response, with early box office for ‘Melania’ exceeding our expectation,” said Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of domestic theatrical distribution.