Melania opened Number 29 at the UK box office, with the documentary about US President Donald Trump’s wife making just under £33,000.
The documentary about the First Lady, directed by Brett Ratner, took just £32,974 from 155 cinemas across the country, a screen average of £212.80.
Ahead of the movie’s premiere last weekend, Vue chief executive Tim Richards described UK ticket sales as “soft”, while it was reported that many showings were sparsely attended. In some screens, the film even played to empty rooms, while other rooms were booked up – some with journalists, after distributor Amazon opted not to preview it before release.
Worldwide, it’s earned $9.5million at the box office from a budget of $40million. In the US and Canada, it had the highest opening for a non-concert documentary since 2012’s Chimpanzee.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 49 per cent of the opening day audience in the US identified as Republicans, with just 2 per cent identifying as Democrats. The audience was dominated by women, too, being 72 per cent female, via Deadline.
Melania follows the 20 days before her husband’s second inauguration last January, and the First Lady said the warm reception to her 2024 memoir, also called Melania, prompted her to come up with the idea.
Amazon, Disney, Netflix and Paramount Pictures all bid for the streaming rights. Disney offered about $14million, but lost out to Amazon’s $40million bid, the highest ever paid for a documentary.
It’s been panned by critics, however. The film currently stands at a seven per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with one Guardian critic giving the film zero stars out of five.
And, looking at the film’s opening weekend, The Daily Beast reported that there had been accusations of “fake ticket sales” made to boost the movie’s fortunes.
The article quoted box office expert Tom Brueggemann, who claimed on his Substack: “Industry sources say there were signs that blocs of tickets were purchased for the weekend, then distributed to senior citizen homes, Republican activists, other interested parties for free to help boost audiences.”