Amazon MGM Studios‘ Brett Ratner documentary, Melania, has been nixed from South African theaters, which sources inform us were political reasons.
That said, the pic’s South African distributor, Filmfinity’s head of sales and marketing, Thobashan Govindarajulu didn’t provide reasons for the movie’s last-minute pull. He informed the New York Times, “That was our decision.”
The movie, which follows the First Lady in the 20 days leading up to the 2025 inauguration, opens Friday around the globe and is expected to see around $5M stateside in 1,500 theaters, possibly the best start for a documentary in the last decade. Presales in the U.S. are already at $1M. Melania‘s advance ticket sales are faring well in rural areas with populations under 500,000. We’re also hearing that key showtimes are selling out at the Century City AMC in Los Angeles and NYC Lincoln Plaza.
“Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in [the] territory,” South African theatrical distributor Filmfinity told The New York Times‘ Johannesburg bureau. Today’s news about Melania was broken by South African outlet News24.
While Amazon MGM Studios is building out its own foreign theatrical distribution around the globe, they have FilmNation handling international distribution and marketing with buyers around the world. Among the territories that Melania is playing in are UK, Spain, and Mexico. Amazon MGM Studios licensed the documentary for $40M and is spending around $30M in worldwide P&A.
Amazon didn’t respond to request for comment.