Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that the company’s $75 million documentary following Melania Trump was a “good business decision,” although he reiterated that he was not involved in the decision to acquire the project from director Brett Ratner.
In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin Wednesday morning, Bezos was asked whether the doc was part of an effort to placate President Trump.
“The Melania thing is a falsehood that will not die,” Bezos responded, before defending the film’s performance. “I had nothing to do with that. By the way, it appears it was a good business decision. You know, it did very well in theaters. It’s done very well on streaming. People are very curious about Melania.
“So even though I had nothing to do with it, you know, it appears that the Amazon team made a very wise business decision,” he added. “I also had nothing to do with Project Hail Mary, which I regret because it’s an incredible success. I wish I had greenlit that.”
While Melania opened to about $8 million, it only garnered around $16.6 million at the worldwide box office. While viewership on Prime Video is not entirely clear, it did top the charts on that service after it debuted. The tech giant spent an estimated $40 million to buy it, and another $35 million to market it. There is also a docuseries that will be released in the future continuing the story.
