Amazon’s $75 million documentary about first lady Melania Trump had its first private screening in a makeshift theater at the White House on Saturday evening.
The White House Family Theater, a 40-seater where presidents have traditionally screened movies, was demolished in October to make way for Trump’s gaudy new $400 million ballroom.
Melania is already slated to get an official red-carpet premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday evening, one day ahead of its official release.
However, owing to the ice storm bearing down on Washington D.C., Trump’s third wife decided to throw an intimate, 70-person screening of the movie at the White House for friends, family, and assorted VIPs, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Before Saturday, only the movie’s director, Brett Ratner, Melania, and a small number of associates had seen it, making this the debut for President Donald Trump, son Barron Trump, and close allies.
Other guests reportedly in attendance included Queen Rania of Jordan, Apple CEO Tim Cook, former boxer Mike Tyson, and self-help coach Tony Robbins.
The screening reportedly took place in the East Wing of the White House in a screening room cobbled together by Melania herself, with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment overseen by Ratner.
No expense was spared to make up for the last-minute location, with framed souvenir movie tickets and commemorative popcorn boxes specially printed for the occasion.
Guests were welcomed by a full military band playing “Melania’s Waltz,” a tune written for the movie by composer Tony Neiman.
The documentary is widely expected to bomb when it opens nationally on Friday, Jan. 30. Entertainment reporter Rob Shuter claimed that advance ticket sales are “dismal,” with theaters expected to be “practically empty.”
The movie was funded by Amazon at a reported cost of $40 million. Billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos has reportedly spent an additional $35 million on marketing for the movie and ordered underlings to attend the satellite premiere screenings to be held in almost two dozen cities across the country on Thursday.
Despite the multinational’s best efforts to get the movie into some 1,400 theaters across the country ahead of its streaming release, Melania is reportedly on track to make a dismal $5 million in its opening weekend. Figures may be held back if they are as bad as projected, Shuter again reports.
Clips of audiences booing the trailer when it has been shown in theaters have gone viral.
The documentary follows Melania during the “20 days” prior to her husband’s second presidential inauguration in January of last year.
Ratner is thought to have spent months living at the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida ahead of the shooting. It will be the Rush Hour director’s first movie since 2014’s Hercules. His career stalled in 2017, after multiple women accused him of sexual assault or harassment.
A month ahead of the movie’s release, Ratner popped up in the Epstein files, posing topless with the late alleged sex-trafficker Jean-Luc Brunel.
The reconstructed East Wing is slated to include a new, modernized movie theater, which will open once the building work ends in 2029, after Trump leaves office.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
