Melania Trump’s documentary is a flop amongst the moviegoers as the attendance dropped to 62.3% in the third weekend of its release. Directed by Brett Ratner and produced by Amazon MGM Studios, the documentary had a massive budget of $75 million. Over $35 million was spent to promote the documentary. The marketing for the movie was phenomenally done with ads on buses, billboards, and a premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center.
However, that could not save it from being an unprofitable project. The documentary grossed only $15.4 million in total, which does not even reach half the budget. Melania earned $7 million in its first week of release, which was substantial compared to other documentaries. But by the second week, the attendance dropped by 67% despite the promotions and hype around the release.
Melania’s documentary “MELANIA” suffers an $80 million loss at the domestic box office, with opening weekend estimates between $2M–$5M after Amazon spent $85 million for the film including marketing. pic.twitter.com/OZBP9oS1zr
— EM (@EXECUTIVEXMEDIA) January 30, 2026
Usually, documentaries do not have a large budget, but since this film had a huge budget, the fall at the box office seems unrecoverable. Amazon plans to recover the losses through advertising during streaming. The date hasn’t been revealed for its release on Amazon Prime Video.
Apart from the documentary, a docuseries will also be released on Amazon. According to Melania Trump, there will be new scenes in the docuseries that are still being produced. She said during the film’s premiere, “We have some scenes that are not in the movie. We will have in a few months a docuseries, so people will see much more documentary.”
The final viewership and earnings of the documentary may only be determined after it’s available for streaming. Not sure how many people will tune in to watch it, but she seems hopeful.
The Melania movie might be the biggest flop in Hollywood history.
What does that say about Trump’s influence?
America is waking up to the grift. pic.twitter.com/lNyjJ2Kf7i
— Save America Movement (@SaveAmericaMvm) January 29, 2026
The current IMDb rating of the movie is at 1.4 and 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, with scathing reviews. Some critics have called it Trump’s vanity project, saying it lacks substance. According to Variety, the main goal of the Melania documentary may not have been to earn much since Amazon can afford the losses.
Amazon’s MGM studio has a different approach to defining success. As per the distribution chief, Kevin Wilson, “Whether or not people like it, the value of these movies is different for our business model. We’re getting a massive marketing campaign that’s being paid for before the film gets to streaming.”
Therefore, even a massive drop at the box office still won’t stop the celebration for Trump as well as Amazon.
