Almost a month after the release of Melania Trump’s documentary on January 30, the producer of the film admitted that most of the people who liked the film were actually MAGA supporters.
The producer of Melania, Marc Beckman, who has also been the First Lady’s adviser for 20 years, spoke about the movie in an interview with Variety. He said the film was never meant to be political.
Instead, it was simply meant to tell a “nice story” about the former model, her family, her business work, and her philanthropy. Which is why, the team had hoped for the film to appeal to a wide audience.
“This isn’t a political, policy-oriented message. It’s just a nice story about this woman and her family and philanthropy and business, historically for our country,” Beckman said. “So we actually really wanted it to go to everyone. But obviously the fans go first, right?”
However, he admitted that the first people to show up in theaters were actually Donald Trump’s supporters. Although he didn’t seem to have an issue with MAGA fans flocking to the theaters, Beckman later admitted how it actually affected the film.
Melania now holds the lowest rating in history on IMBD, making it the worst rated film of ALL TIME on the site.
— Damian Low (@DamianLow3) February 2, 2026
Comparing Melania to superhero films that often attract nerds and comic book fans, Beckman said, in the same way, he expected Trump supporters to be the first to watch the documentary. While fans lauded the movie, critics just gave an abysmal 11% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“That makes sense; it’s just like a majority of the people that would go to see a Spider-Man movie in the beginning would be fans of Spider-Man,” he said. “We expected the fans to come out first, so it’s nice that they approve.”
Unfortunately, the documentary that follows the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, showing how Melania Trump prepared to become the First Lady, failed to live up to Marc Beckman’s expectations.
Only $15M in box office for a $75M movie doesn’t sound like a 98% audience Rotten Tomatoes. pic.twitter.com/kgjIs2tcIW
— Mlh (@mlhobbyist) February 16, 2026
Funded by Amazon in a reported $40 million deal, the movie not only stumbled in rating but also at the box office. The deal was made directly by the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, who has had a friendly bond with Trump.
Meanwhile, the film was directed by Brett Ratner, who once used to be a successful Hollywood director known for the Rush Hour franchise, until his career slowed down after sexual assault accusations from multiple women. Later, he also appeared in the recent batch of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the DOJ.
While Ratner has denied wrongdoing and got a second chance at his career with Melania, his comeback movie received very harsh reviews from critics. Many reviewers used strong words to describe it, calling the film, “a cheeseball of staggering inertia”.
Others slammed the documentary as a “ghastly bit of propaganda,” “narcolepsy-inducing,” and “two hours of endless hell”. Critics also used negative words like “vapid,” “lifeless,” “exhausting,” “pointless,” “hollow,” “patinated,” “empty,” “flat,” “insipid,” and “shameless”.
So far, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes stands at 98%, as fans of the First Lady tried to push back against the negative reviews and defend the documentary online. This led Marc Beckman to criticize professional reviewers.
“What really is a critic’s job today? It’s worse than bias,” he said. “It’s like they’re voting, with political ideology first. There were some critiques I read that didn’t even talk about the film; they only spoke about President Trump.”
Calling the critical reception “just unfortunately where we are today in society”, Beckman described the large gap between critics’ scores and audience scores as a sign of the divided times. Stating how the reviews majorly focused on the President, rather than the First Lady, Beckman said that it reflects today’s political climate.
