"Melania" is a documentary film about the first lady of the United States. Journalists almost openly say that this is not a movie, but a bribe

Jeff Bezos spent $75 million on him to please Trump

“Melania,” a documentary film about US First Lady Melania Trump, is being released worldwide. More precisely, about 20 days of her life in January 2025, dedicated to preparing for her husband’s inauguration and return to the White House after a four-year break. Exclusive footage of private meetings, discussions of the details of the ceremony, scenes with Melania Trump's team and with the family of the president-elect is used.

The scandal surrounding the film erupted long before the premiere. Back in December 2024, when Donald Trump had already won the presidential election but had not yet taken office, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos came to visit him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. They had a long-standing conflict: Trump accused Bezos of defaming him through publications in his newspaper The Washington Post. Bezos, for his part, accused Trump of not giving his companies government contracts for political reasons.

At their December meeting, Trump and Bezos appeared to have made peace. Shortly after, Amazon announced that it would produce and finance a film about Melania Trump. Moreover, he will allocate $40 million for it - an unheard-of budget for a documentary film (other studios offered no more than 14 million). A significant part of this amount was intended personally for Melania Trump - not only the heroine, but also the producer of the film.

In the American press, few people directly call this project a bribe to Trump from Bezos. But transparent hints that this is a bribe are present in almost every publication about Melania.

The director of the film was Brett Ratner, known for the Rush Hour franchise with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and the films Red Dragon (prequel to The Silence of the Lambs) and X-Men: The Last Stand. This became another scandal: in 2017, during the MeToo campaign, several actresses accused Ratner of harassment, after which his Hollywood career effectively ended.

According to The New York Times' sources at Amazon, the company's management did not allow employees to refuse to participate in work on "Melania." Rolling Stone writes that two-thirds of the crew chose to have their names removed from the film's credits.

Amazon spent another $35 million to promote the film. The campaign includes billboards in New York's Times Square (the most expensive advertising surfaces in the world) and trailers shown on screens during National Football League playoff games.

Critics who saw “Melania” before its premiere largely criticized the film as boring—or at least characterized it as an expensive and pointless PR project that would appeal only to loyal fans of Trump and his family. Analysts predict that box office receipts in the first weekend of release will be about two million dollars , and under favorable circumstances - up to five million. Some expect the gross to be only around a million.

In the UK, the film was shown in more than 100 Vue cinemas and ticket sales were extremely low. In London, one or two tickets were sold for some sessions. Vue admitted that it faced criticism from the public due to the distribution of “Melania.”

In South Africa, the local distributor Filmfinity completely withdrew the film from distribution the day before the premiere. Company officials say they made the decision based on “recent events” and the “current situation.” They prefer not to clarify what is behind these formulations. Presumably, we are talking about the political aggravation of relations between South Africa and the United States: Donald Trump accuses the South African authorities of “white genocide.”

Documentary films generally rarely receive significant box office receipts in cinemas. If it finds its audience, it is usually on television and streaming. Melania will be released on Amazon Prime. This platform, like all similar services, does not disclose viewing statistics for specific films.