The strangest thing about political celebrity is that it turns a box office number into a character verdict—yes, we’re talking about Melania Trump. One weekend, you’re a First Lady. Next, you’re a punchline with a Comscore estimate attached.
Melania Trump’s self-titled documentary, Melania, was positioned as a glossy, access-heavy look at her life in the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025. It’s also been widely reported as a $75 million Amazon-MGM project, so the financial math was always going to be merciless.
And then came the opening-weekend figure everyone is now using as a weapon: about $7 million.
Depending on who’s speaking, that’s either a “flop” or a documentary breakout. Amazon MGM Studios has publicly touted the film’s debut, saying it earned $7.04 million across 1,778 North American theaters, with an A CinemaScore and a 99% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score, calling the start “strong.”
NBC News likewise reported the documentary “blew past” expectations despite criticism and poor reviews, citing about $7 million in its opening weekend. The number is real; the narrative around it is what’s being fought over.
Melania Trump talks about her upcoming $40 million documentary on Amazon.
It sounds more insufferable than I thought it was going to be.
Her “responsibilities” of packing, moving, and decorating the White House?
Vapid. pic.twitter.com/QGokWLyDbN
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) January 13, 2025
Here’s where the story gets slippery. In normal Hollywood terms, $7 million for a political documentary can look like a win—especially in a marketplace where many documentaries barely touch theatres at all. Bloomberg reported the opening was stronger than expected, citing Comscore and noting forecasters had pegged it lower.
But “success” changes definition when the budget is enormous. Business Insider laid out the uncomfortable reality: the film may have broken a documentary box office record, but Amazon still has a long road to anything resembling break-even, given the reported $75 million price tag. That’s the part the memes don’t bother with—because memes aren’t spreadsheets.
There’s also the content problem. A PR expert quoted by Irish Star US, Kevin Mercuri of Propheta Communications, argued Melania “never took the role of First Lady very seriously,” calling her 2018 “Be Best” initiative “dead on arrival,” and he suggested her best move might be to “head back to Trump Tower” and “live her best life.”
It’s a brutal assessment, but it’s also a reminder that this film isn’t being judged solely as art. It’s being judged as an identity statement.
A Lake Oswego movie theater says it is no longer allowed to air the new ‘Melania’ documentary about the first lady after a joke they put on the marquee promoting the film. https://t.co/VUJBGKubAK pic.twitter.com/ntu9wfheB1
— KATU News (@KATUNews) February 7, 2026
The documentary reportedly tries to keep some distance from President Donald Trump’s politics and instead centers on Melania Trump’s perspective on family and business during the transition. That approach can feel strategic—or evasive—depending on the viewer’s mood.
Another PR voice, Estelle Keeber, told Irish Star US that “restraint is the smartest move” right now, arguing audiences are “highly attuned to authenticity,” and that projects that feel “overly controlled or distant tend to fall flat.”
Her advice—strategic silence, then selective, purpose-led visibility—sounds less like a comeback tour and more like an admission that you can’t outtalk a bad narrative online.
What makes this striking is that Melania Trump has always seemed to prefer distance. Even her public persona is built around withholding. The irony is that Melania Trump is, by design, an attempt to sell intimacy—exclusive footage, private conversations, behind-the-scenes planning—while keeping the emotional core tightly sealed.
MELANIA, The Film
How a First Lady’s history begins.
One Moment In Time, Captured – 20 days before the U.S. Presidential inauguration.
Melania Trump’s Unfiltered Journey—family, business, philanthropy—unprecedented access into this very private person’s life (@flotus).
Only… pic.twitter.com/AwMTGYwE6t
— Marc Beckman | Some Future Day (@MarcBeckman) December 17, 2025
That might be why the film has become such a Rorschach test. Supporters see a polished, private woman refusing to perform vulnerability on command. Critics see a carefully managed image masquerading as revelation.
Either way, the documentary’s first weekend has already done its most durable work: it’s made Melania Trump a cultural argument again, not just a political spouse. And in the Trump era, that’s never a quiet thing to be.
