The documentary “Melania” has vanished entirely from box office rankings just four weeks after its theatrical debut, signaling a dramatic collapse for Amazon MGM Studios’ divisive $75 million investment in the project.
The 104‑minute film is no longer listed among the top 38 domestic releases according to IMDb’s box office chart, effectively ending its time in theaters with $16.3 million earned in the U.S.—far below Amazon’s $40 million rights purchase and the $35 million marketing budget.
Despite opening in the No. 3 spot with $7.1 million on Jan. 30 — the strongest debut for a non-concert documentary in more than ten years — the film, which covers Melania Trump’s final 20 days before returning to the White House, dropped 67 percent in its second weekend. By week three, it slid to No. 15 and soon vanished from major cities, including New York and Los Angeles.
The studio stopped sharing box office data on Saturday, Feb. 21, and the movie has been pulled from theaters in New York and Los Angeles. A WIRED review of 1,398 screenings across 329 U.S. theaters found only two sold-out showings — one in Florida and another in Missouri.
Amazon MGM removed the film from another 600 theaters after about 700 locations had already dropped it the previous week. On Feb. 26, its final day in wide release, the documentary made only $70,000, averaging $59 per theater, suggesting most showings played to nearly empty auditoriums.
Despite the steep drop, Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM’s head of domestic theatrical distribution, remained upbeat. “Melania’s strong theatrical performance is a critical first moment that validates our holistic distribution strategy, building awareness, engagement and provides momentum ahead of the film’s debut on Prime Video,” he said.
The Brett Ratner–directed film has been controversial since it was announced. In November 2017, Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct by six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, amid the #MeToo movement. He denied all accusations and was never criminally charged. Warner Bros. cut ties with him, making this his first major production since. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos met with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024, shortly before the company acquired the documentary’s rights.
The documentary launched in 1,778 theaters across North America before expanding to 2,003 theaters in its second weekend. By Feb. 25, it had dropped to 505 locations. Its strongest markets were Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and West Palm Beach. The audience was largely female (72 percent), white (75 percent), and over age 55 (72 percent), with rural theaters supplying 46 percent of domestic sales — well above the typical 30 percent.
The White House hosted a private black-tie screening on Jan. 24 ahead of its Kennedy Center premiere in Washington. Attendees included major tech CEOs such as Amazon’s Andy Jassy, Apple’s Tim Cook, Zoom’s Eric Yuan, and AMD’s Lisa Su, as well as Queen Rania of Jordan, speaker Tony Robbins, and former boxer Mike Tyson. Afterward, First Lady Melania Trump shared on X: “I am deeply humbled to have been surrounded by an inspiring room of friends, family, and cultural iconoclasts at the White House last night.”
Critics overwhelmingly rejected the film, giving it an 11 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 53 reviews. Xan Brooks of The Guardian said it “plays like a gilded trash remake of ‘The Zone of Interest’” and called it “pure, endless ****.” The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes summarized the response this way: “Presented with great pomp and circumstance but little insight, this documentary purports to be an up-close view of the First Lady while curiously revealing very little about her.”
Audiences, however, reacted very differently. The film received a 98 percent verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an “A” CinemaScore — the largest divide between critics and viewers in the site’s history. Parent company Versant denied any manipulation, saying all reviews came from verified Fandango ticket buyers.
Internationally, the movie performed even worse, grossing only $291,552. In the U.K., it debuted at No. 29 with £32,974 from 155 cinemas, averaging £212 per location. In its second weekend, revenue plunged 88 percent to £4,091. In Mexico City, 15 of 27 showings across eight theaters sold zero tickets, averaging only 2.9 attendees per screening. South African distributor Filmfinity canceled the release altogether.
Amazon’s uncommon release approach has prompted debate over whether theatrical runs are becoming expensive marketing vehicles for streaming platforms. Film analyst David A. Gross noted that while the opening was “excellent” for a political documentary, “for any other film, with $75 million in costs and limited foreign potential, it would be a problem.” Amazon’s $75 million commitment far exceeds typical documentary spending — for instance, RBG (2018) used only around $3 million for marketing.
The huge spending has raised questions about Amazon’s intentions. Disney offered $14 million to $15 million for streaming rights alone — meaning Amazon outbid competitors by roughly $25 million. The Wall Street Journal reported that First Lady Melania Trump personally received about $28 million of the $40 million rights payment.
The documentary has since shifted to Prime Video, where Amazon MGM hopes it will reach a larger audience. A follow-up docuseries is already planned under the existing deal. Whether streaming performance will balance out the substantial investment remains unclear — though for Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, $75 million may be a relatively modest amount if it helps strengthen its relationship with the Trump administration.