Melania Trump’s long-teased documentary is finally hitting theaters—and it’s arriving straight into a box-office buzzsaw.
The 104-minute film, billed as an intimate look at the first lady’s life ahead of Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, opens nationwide this Friday. But despite a lavish budget, a massive marketing push, and overzealous promotion from Trump himself, early projections suggest Melania, 55, could be headed for a brutal theatrical debut.
According to industry tracking from the National Research Group, the documentary is expected to bring in roughly $5 million during its opening weekend. That figure pales in comparison when stacked against its box office competition.
Leading the weekend box office is Sam Raimi’s horror thriller Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, which is projected to rake in $14 million to $17 million domestically, with an additional $10 million to $12 million internationally.
Send Help was made for an estimated $40 million, tying Melania, which was financed by Amazon. The company also shelled out an additional $35 million towards marketing for the first lady’s film.
Melania’s film projections, however, aren’t even enough to get her second place in box office sales.
The sci-fi thriller, Iron Lung, is tracking toward $10 million, while Shelter is expected to land between $5 million and $7 million. That leaves Melania jockeying for last place, with some projections putting its opening-weekend haul as low as $1 million, according to trade publication Box Office Pro.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The documentary follows Melania over the 20 days leading up to President Trump’s return to the White House, in what the first lady has described as a “private, unfiltered look” at her life balancing family, business, and her first lady duties.
Trump, for his part, has gone all in. After attending a private screening on Saturday alongside a room full of billionaires, the president took to Truth Social to declare the film a “MUST WATCH,” insisting it was “SELLING OUT FAST!”
The only problem is the receipts don’t exactly back that up.
While some showtimes in conservative strongholds appear to be filling up, ticket sales elsewhere tell a different story. At the AMC theatre in Waldorf, Maryland, entire rows remain untouched, with no seats sold for the 7 p.m. showing as of Wednesday afternoon.
The film is opening in more than 1,500 theaters nationwide, but screenshots of sparsely populated seating charts have already begun circulating online, fueling mockery before the first tickets are even scanned.
CNN data analyst Harry Enten added insult to injury this week during a Tuesday night episode of CNN’s OutFront, predicting a 63 percent chance that Melania lands below 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes once reviews drop.
All of this is unfolding despite a $35 million marketing campaign, including $3.5 million spent on national TV ads between December 23 and January 23, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The promotional run also included a headline-grabbing stunt on Wednesday, when Melania rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to hype her film release.
Still, marketing dollars haven’t erased lingering baggage coming from the controversial film director, Brett Ratner, who has largely stayed out of the spotlight since multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct in 2017. Ratner has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The documentary marks Ratner’s first major directing project since the allegations, and his involvement has drawn renewed scrutiny as the release date approaches.
Despite the grim projections, Melania is pressing ahead. The first lady is set to attend a MAGA premiere at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night before the film’s nationwide rollout the following day.
