The first lady’s much-discussed documentary Melania will debut March 9 on Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video after quietly winding down its run in theaters, where it has earned north of $16.4 million domestically.
Melania is one of the most expensive docs in history. Amazon MGM Studios ponied up $40 million for rights to the project, and is counting on the film to serve up presidential-sized viewership numbers on Prime.
The doc chronicles the 20 days before Trumps second inauguration as president, and is directed by Brett Ratner in his first film since he was accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct (he denies any wrongdoing).
The doc started off its box office run with something of a bang over the Jan. 30-Feb. 1 weekend following a world premiere at the Trump-Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., attended by the president. Melania opened in third place with a better-than-expected $7 million from 1,778 theaters, the best showing in a decade for a nonfiction title, excluding concert pics and Disney nature titles. And it beat Jason Statham‘s new action pic, Shelter, which opened to $5.5 million.
However, the momentum didn’t last, but the pic did deliver a victory for the overall business in attracting older females. Melania dropped off a steep 67 percent in its sophomore outing. By its fourth weekend, it was shedding theaters because of diminished demand, and was available in only 505 locations, followed by 100 cinemas over the Feb. 27-March 1 weekend, when it placed No. 34 with $56,000.
Melania hoped to be a major player overses, where Film Nation was brought on to handle getting the doc cinto theaters but foreign grosses were never reported.