'No One Saw That Coming': 'Melania' Movie Blows Away Industry Box Office Expectations in Opening Weekend
First Lady Melania Trump’s new documentary, ‘Melania,’ far exceeded industry expectations, coming in third at the box office on its opening weekend with over $7 million in ticket sales.
That is the highest opening for a documentary in over a decade, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“No one saw that coming, with many suggesting ‘Melania’ was a bomb before it even opened,” the news outlet added, based on early ticket sales.
Jeff Bock, senior media analyst for Exhibitor Relations, told USA Today that anything over a million dollars for a documentary is “a huge number.”
“That would mean that a lot of folks who don’t normally go to the movies went to this,” he said.
Variety noted that the Brett Ratner-directed film, which was acquired and promoted by Amazon MGM, was expected to take in somewhere between $3 million and $5 million in the 1,778 theaters in which it screened. So the movie took in over double the amount of the lower estimates going into the weekend.
“Melania” the movie is a hit. Box office #’s will be out later this morning. But it’s already clear that “Melania” is the best-performing documentary of its kind in a decade. Of course, Amazon’s HUGE marketing campaign helped a lot pic.twitter.com/Qvh2jNbsem
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 1, 2026
“We’re very encouraged by the strong start and positive audience response, with early box office for ‘Melania’ exceeding our expectations,” Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM’s head of domestic theatrical distribution, said.
“This momentum is an important first step in what we see as a long-tail lifecycle for both the film and the forthcoming docu-series, extending well beyond the theatrical window and into what we believe will be a significant run for both on our service. We are confident in the long-term value this rollout will deliver to customers both in theaters, and for years to come on Prime Video,” he added.
Ratner explained at the premiere of “Melania” at the Trump-Kennedy Center last week that the movie will first be in theaters and then, in a few months, will be available to stream on Amazon. And Amazon will be releasing a three-episode docu-series that he also shot.
.@BrettRatner explains the 3 part docu-series that will be released after the MELANIA film.
MELANIA will be in theaters for a few months before going to streaming on Amazon Prime Video, then they will release a 3 episode docu-series with all new material to follow. pic.twitter.com/owCwW45vVJ
— FLOTUS Report (@MELANIAJTRUMP) January 31, 2026
“Melania” was mostly panned by critics, but audiences loved it, giving the movie an “A” CinemaScore and a 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. By contrast, regarding the latter, just 9 percent of film critics liked it.
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) February 1, 2026
Variety added a caveat to the early box office success, but also acknowledged that Amazon is not expecting to make its full investment back, just in ticket sales.
“‘Melania’ cost more than just about any documentary in history,” Variety said. “Amazon MGM spent a staggering amount of money on the film, acquiring the doc for $40 million and then shelling out $35 million on the marketing spend. Theater owners keep about half of ticket sales, which will make it difficult to justify the theatrical cost of ‘Melania.'”
“However, a deep-pocketed streamer like Amazon cares about much more than box office grosses; the studio plans to recoup some of its costs when ‘Melania’ lands on its Prime streaming service after its theatrical run,” the news outlet added.
The film focuses on the first 20 days of January 2025, leading up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president, from the perspective of Melania.
MELANIA, the film, exclusively in theaters worldwide on January 30th, 2026. pic.twitter.com/n2kloQ4JwW
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) December 17, 2025
It gives the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the preparations with the first lady traveling between Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, and the Blair House, where the first couple spent the night before returning across the street to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
President Trump appears sparingly until the latter part of the film, with the inaugural events themselves.
The documentary has a very patriotic feeling throughout and gives audiences a chance to relive the excitement of Trump’s victory and celebrate America’s ongoing experiment in liberty.
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