"Melania," the controversial documentary featuring first lady Melania Trump, surprised at the box office, notching a $7 million opening weekend, according to estimates released Sunday, Feb. 1, by Amazon MGM Studios.
Directed by Brett Ratner, who has been in Hollywood exile since denying sexual harassment allegations in 2017, "Melania" had been tracking for a $3 million to $5 million opening. The movie follows the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump's second inauguration in 2025, from his wife's perspective. Final box-office numbers will be announced Feb. 2.
Anything over $1 million is "a huge number," said Jeff Bock, senior media analyst for Exhibitor Relations, in an interview with USA TODAY the week before release. "That would mean that a lot of folks who don't normally go to the movies went to this."
The "Melania" opening was good enough to place third in the domestic top five for the weekend. It was behind two horror-leaning debuts – survival comedy/thriller "Send Help" ($20 million) and indie scary movie "Iron Lung" ($17.9 million) – but fared better than Disney sequel "Zootopia 2 ($5.8 million), now in its ninth box office weekend, and new release Jason Statham action movie "Shelter" ($5.5 million).
