Amazon’s big-budget First Lady documentary Melania came in 29th place on its debut weekend at the UK box office, according to Comscore data.
The movie scored a lowly £32,974 ($44,960) from 155 cinemas at a site average of £212 ($289). It was the ninth most-popular new release. That UK site count is high for a documentary, so less than $50k across the weekend for a movie that cost $40M to license and $35M to market is a poor return.
Amazon and partners rolled out the international red carpet for the movie but it seemingly hasn’t struck a chord with overseas audiences, at least in the early analysis. We don’t have the whole international picture yet — Amazon said it wouldn’t provide international data — but numbers have come in for another major European territory and it’s similarly underwhelming.
In Italy, a country with a relatively Trump-friendly government, the film launched to only €6,520 ($7,696) from 94 cinemas, an average of only €69 ($81) per venue. It charted 38th among all movies.
This comes after Amazon spent millions on the international rollout and campaign, as we’ve reported in recent days. In the U.S., the film launched to $7M, a lofty standalone number for a doc, but in the context of its record acquisition and marketing spend, not so much. Melania has been savaged by critics but has seemingly turned on Trump’s base. As we and others have reported, Amazon will likely be thinking about gains in areas beyond the traditional box office with this movie.
Back in the UK, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet topped the charts in its fourth frame, garnering £1.4M ($1.9M) across 737 locations. This was just ahead of The Housemaid in its sixth week. New Jason Statham pic Shelter failed to ignite with £947K ($1.3M) from 481 locations but the week’s winner, as we expected, was Markiplier’s low-budget Iron Lung, which took virtually the same amount as Shelter from 397 sites and a limited advertising spend.
We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment.