Melania documentary has left Hollywood shocked after it smashed all the records despite mixed reviews.
According to Daily Mail, First Lady Melania Trump's documentary earned the best opening and ranked as the top documentary in over a decade.
Brett Ratner's film that showed the 20 days in the first lady's life before President Donald Trump's second inauguration gained $8 million at the box office in its opening weekend.
Unlike the initial projection of $3 million to $5 million in ticket sales, the documentary bagged $7 million from ticket sales across the US and Canada to become the best-performing theatrical release for a documentary since 2012, beside concert films.
The strong performance of the US president’s wife’s documentary film has left the Ollywood critics reeling.
Brian Stelter, the chief media analyst at CNN, wrote on X, “Amazon MGM Studios is touting strong ticket sales, but the film is still far, far short of turning a profit, i.e., the typical Hollywood metric for success.”
Hollywood Reporter said, “No one saw that coming,” adding that many predicted the failure of the film “based on empty, or nearly empty, seat maps in cinemas across the country.”
Meanwhile, Trump, who arrived at the premiere of the documentary at the Kennedy Center with Melania, rejected reporters' weak ticket sale claims.
The 79-year-old told reporters, “It’s a very tough business in theaters selling movie tickets after Covid. I think this will do unbelievable streaming and everything. Theaters are a different world.”
The documentary, MELANIA, was released in theaters on January 30, 2026, and is scheduled to stream on Prime Video later.
