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On a freezing January morning in New York City, I joined 19 fellow moviegoers in Auditorium 10 at AMC 34th Street 14 to watch one of the earliest public screenings in the U.S. of Melania, the $40 million Amazon “documentary.”
It was obvious from the notepads resting on the tables of the 60-seat theater that most were members of the press, but at least two members of the public had also bought tickets.
“I came mostly out of curiosity,” 55-year-old New Yorker and astrologer Alan Lin told The Independent.
Another civilian who arrived halfway through the 104-minute movie, and left again a short time later to get a soda, started vaping as the credits rolled. “I liked it,” he told The Independent after the movie ended. “But I might have to go see it again because I missed most of it.”
If more people went to see the movie twice, it could give ticket sales a boost. Unsurprisingly, sales are proving stronger in more conservative areas like Orange County, California, and Miami, Florida. According to a Wired analysis, only two screenings in the U.S. have completely sold out — one at an AMC in Independence, Missouri, and one at an AMC in Vero Beach, Florida, an hour’s drive north of the Trumps’ residence, Mar-a-Lago.
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First Lady Melania Trump at the premiere of Melania at the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington DC Thursday night. Friday morning, there were 20-odd people at a 34th Street AMC movie theater screening in New York City – most of whom were journalists (REUTERS)
Trump played down the weak ticket sales at his wife’s premiere at the Kennedy Center. “It’s a very tough business in theaters selling movie tickets after Covid,” he said Thursday night.
While Melania has been released with much fanfare, you wouldn’t know it from this New York theater, where it was competing with Academy Award-nominated Marty Supreme and Hamnet, alongside reruns of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The 10:10 a.m. screening — never likely to be the busiest — was on the highest level of the four-storey complex. Promotional posters for Melania were nowhere to be found.
The first lady is said to be pocketing more than 70 percent of the $40 million Amazon paid to license the film, according to The Wall Street Journal. It was directed by Brett Ratner, the disgraced Hollywood director behind Rush Hour, who first met the Trumps in 2011. He hopes, it’s been reported, that this film will be his big comeback moment following a string of sexual misconduct allegations in 2017, which he denies and has not been charged over.
While much has been made in the film of the first lady’s inauguration day “Hamburglar” hat; the golden eggs filled with caviar that guests were served at a banquet on the eve of the ceremony; and several mentions of how tall Barron is, the so-called documentary also serves as a vehicle to promote the MAGA-Trump agenda.
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The Trumps at an inaugural ball. The first lady is said to be pocketing more than 70 percent of the $40 million Amazon paid to license the film about the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s return to office (Getty Images)
Melania was paid as an executive producer and given direct control over everything in the film’s editorial content, culminating in a product that provides viewers with a narrow window into the “reality” of what kind of first lady she planned to be the second time around.
Much of the film focuses on the first lady’s messages of “unity” and “humanity,” themes that now jar with scenes that have played out in Minnesota, and other U.S. states, over the past year as a result of the president’s anti-immigration operation.
“The weight of history intertwined with my own journey as an immigrant … is a reminder of why I respect this nation so deeply,” Melania says in the film. “No matter where we come from, we are bound by the same humanity.”
There are glimmers of causes that the first lady admires. There is a brief video call with First Lady of France Brigitte Macron, where the women share their concerns about the harms of social media on children, and Melania touts her “Fostering the Future” initiative.
But the second half of the film focuses on behind-the-scenes-style footage – the buildup to and of inauguration day – where the viewer learns nothing new.
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While much has been made in the film of the first lady’s inauguration day “Hamburglar” hat (left); the golden eggs filled with caviar guests were served at a banquet on the eve of the ceremony; and several mentions of how tall Barron is, the so-called documentary also serves as a vehicle to promote the MAGA-Trump agenda (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
During one of the glitzy inaugural banquets, there are glimpses of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the president’s former “first buddy” Elon Musk — a reminder of the role Big Tech has played in the making of the film and bankrolling other parts of the Trump administration’s agenda, such as his new ballroom, and donating to the inauguration itself.
There are a couple of not-so-subtle digs at Democrats. A shot of former Vice President Kamala Harris checking her watch during the inauguration was included, footage of the Trumps waving at the Bidens as they depart the White House aboard Marine One, and a portrait of former President Barack Obama in the White House that has since been moved to a hidden stairwell.
The movie is packed with flashy shots of Mrs Trump jetting between her home in the gold-plated Trump Tower penthouse in New York City and Mar-a-Lago.
The occasional interactions between the first lady and the president — including one where she cannot get him off the phone quickly enough and cuts him short with a “Congrats” after he calls to brag about election results — also shed no further light on their marriage.
At the end, Boney. M’s Sunny accompanies footage of Melania posing for her official portraits as first lady, with the lyrics “the dark days are gone, and the bright days are here” playing.
Whatever the first lady’s vision was for a “unifying” a second term, it’s clear that the nation is more divided than ever.