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Melania’s Movie Sold One Ticket In UK — And Trump Had a Backup Plan

Melania Trump’s film sold one UK ticket at its London premiere — but its release strategy means the flop may never show up on paper.

By Tracey Ashlee
Melania Trump’s glossy documentary opened in London on Friday to an audience that barely filled a row. At Vue Islington, one of the UK cinema chain’s flagship venues, the 3:10 p.m. premiere of Melania sold a single ticket. A later 6 p.m. screening attracted two more people. Upcoming showings in the cinema’s 25-seat auditorium remain largely empty. The muted UK debut landed just days after Donald Trump flooded social media with photos from a VIP-packed screening in New York, declaring the film “a MUST WATCH” and insisting tickets were “selling out, FAST!” (Although netizens have recently fact-checked the president's outlandish claims.) Both things can be true,  and that’s the point. While Melania has been promoted aggressively in the United States, its UK rollout appears designed less to succeed than to quietly disappear. Industry sources say the film is likely being released under a “four-walling” arrangement, where distributors pay cinemas a flat fee to screen the movie rather than sharing box office revenue. According to Irish Star, that setup all but guarantees one thing and that is that weak ticket sales may never be publicly reported. “I’d be amazed if box office gets reported on this title,” one industry source told UK media, noting that four-walled releases often bypass standard reporting systems altogether. Vue chief executive Tim Richards confirmed that ticket sales for Melania have been “soft,” adding that the chain received customer complaints over the decision to screen the film at all. The company has not released official figures, and it remains unclear whether UK box office data will ever be logged with tracking services like Comscore. Amazon MGM Studios reportedly paid around $40 million for the documentary and committed an additional $35 million to marketing — spending that has overwhelmingly focused on the U.S. The film was not screened for critics ahead of release and instead Melania debuted through controlled events, including an exclusive White House screening hosted by Melania Trump and director Brett Ratner. Not even Donald Trump himself had watched the movie in its entirety before its release. Filmed over the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, the documentary follows the first lady through transition planning and her return to the East Wing. Amazon’s promotional materials promise “never-before-seen” access and private conversations.  And while it seems as if the movie has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster, the international release strategy tells a different story. In the UK, Melania opened against a crowded slate of commercial films, including studio action releases and awards-season contenders. Despite playing on more than 100 screens nationwide, early bookings were thin across major chains, with entire rows unsold in multiple locations. The approach has raised eyebrows in the exhibition industry. Four-walling allows a film to claim a “wide release” without the reputational risk of public failure which is a useful insurance policy when prestige, not profit, is the real objective. And being the First Family of America, reputation is everything.  Trump has continued to promote the film online, insisting demand is surging. In Britain, at least, the evidence suggests otherwise. One ticket. Two seats. And a release plan built so no one has to say it out loud.

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