A documentary about First Lady Melania Trump in the days leading up to her husband, Donald Trump, ‘s second presidential inauguration may be headed for major disappointment.
According to Rolling Stone, BoxOffice.com has predicted that Melania could earn only $1million (£725,000) during its opening weekend, while National Research Group’s puts that number at around $5million – neither one a very promising projection.
Across the four London Odeon cinemas, which will be showing the film for the first time from tomorrow, only 60 pre-sale tickets have been sold across eight sessions.
Vue chief executive Tim Richards has also told The Telegraph that ticket sales for their sessions are ‘soft’.
Titled Melania: Twenty Days to History, the project was directed by Brett Ratner, best known for leading the Rush Hour film series, but who was the subject of a string of misconduct allegations in 2017 when six women in Hollywood came forward with complaints against him, which he denied.
He also produced the pro-Trump documentary The Man You Don’t Know in 2024.
Very little has been shared about the film’s contents, but the official synopsis teases: ‘Twenty days before the 2025 presidential inauguration, Melania Trump navigates the complexities of the White House transition as she prepares for the role of first lady once again.’
Its subject also described the film to Fox News as a ‘private, unfiltered look as I navigate family, business, and philanthropy on my remarkable journey to becoming first lady’.
Melania was the subject of a bidding war between Disney and Paramount Plus, with both seeking streaming rights to the film.
However, they were outbid by Amazon, who paid $40million (£29million) to license the film and produce a follow-up docuseries.
The staggering amount paid for the film made it the highest price ever paid for a documentary, with the First Lady earning $28million (£ 20m) herself.
Over the weekend, a lavish screening was held at the White House, with guests in attendance including Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Queen Rania of Jordan, and former heavy-weight champion Mike Tyson.
Amid concerns about the President’s wife accepting such a large sum for the film, it’s been said that the deal with Amazon ‘just looks like it’s buying access and favour’.
But in a statement to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Amazon MGM Studios denied that the studio had any ulterior motives. ‘We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it,’ they said.
Ahead of its release however, one crew member said that the process of working on the film involved ‘really long hours’ and was ‘highly disorganised and very chaotic’.
‘It wasn’t easy money. It was very difficult because of the chaos that was around everything,’ they said – pointing to the First Lady being tailed by the Secret Service at all times.
Another person told Rolling Stone that around two-thirds of the crew members who worked on the film in New York had requested not to have their names formally credited on the film.
Someone who will be credited said that, after experiencing the first year of Trump’s presidency, they now wish they had chosen to remove their name. ‘I’m much more alarmed now than I was a year ago,’ they said.
When it comes to the subject herself, many said she was friendly and engaged, but that the director was ‘the worst part of working on the subject’.
One crew member, who said they were only made aware of his involvement the day before filming began, said they’d have turned down the job otherwise. Another detailed how Ratner would leave a trail of rubbish behind him on set and failed to acknowledge some colleagues ‘for even one nanosecond’.
Meanwhile, others have claimed they weren’t allowed to take breaks for meals. But, as one said, ‘Brett, unknowingly or maliciously, got his own food, went up there, was just eating it and just licking his fingers in grubbiest way possible,…having no awareness whatsoever to the fact that everybody else is working and no one’s eating.’
However, one person said Ratner was an ‘intuitive, incredible, emotional, intelligent director, and you will see that on the screen’.
In an attempt to build momentum for the release, Melania also rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday morning.
After spending such a huge amount of money to secure the film, Amazon is also now spending an extra $35million (£25million) to promote it.
Melania will be released in over 5,000 cinemas worldwide, including over 100 in the UK.
Amazon has refused to provide screeners to critics. When Metro reached out to try and secure a preview of the documentary, we were told ‘Amazon is not providing screener links on this title’ in a brief email response.
Vue chief executive Tim Richards has also told The Telegraph that the cinema chain had received a considerable number of emails from the public criticising Vue’s decision to screen the film.
‘I have told everyone that, regardless of how we feel about the movie, if it is BBFC [British Board of Film Classification] approved we look at them and 99% of the time we will show it. We do not play judge and jury to censor movies,’ he said.
On Monday, Donald Trump posted photos from the White House event on Instagram and Truth Social, saying the film was ‘a MUST WATCH’ and that tickets were ‘selling out, FAST!’.
Melania is an executive producer, with the president’s agent and senior adviser Marc Beckman saying earlier this week: ‘She was involved in the production, the postproduction, all of the ad campaign, the trailer.’
Win McNamee/ Getty Images)
‘And when I say involved, I mean she’s not just approving. She built that trailer. She created the cliffhanger; she selected the music. Same thing with the ad campaign that we’re seeing worldwide now in almost 30 countries,’ he told One America News.
During his opening monologue on Tuesday night’s episode of his late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel quipped: ‘According to the writer Michael Wolff, Melania is bigly upset that the murders in Minneapolis are overshadowing the release of the $75 million bribe — I mean, “documentary” — that Amazon made for her.
‘[ICE protester] Alex Pretti was killed on Saturday, the same day they had a VIP screening of the movie at the White House. Now, when she’s promoting her film she has to answer questions about it.’
The film is Ratner’s first project since he faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct nine years ago. He denied all the allegations, and no charges were brought against him.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, one crew member declared that: ‘If it does flop…I would really feel great about it.’
Metro has contacted representatives for Brett Ratner and the Trumps for comment.
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