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Leftists gnash their teeth as ‘Melania’ smashes box office expectations

February 2, 2026 | | Print Article

The record-breaking success premiere of the documentary about First Lady Melania Trump that outdid critics’ predictions proved “reality has once again debunked these serial liars.”

While Oscar buzz was floated about films, comparatively few people were interested in watching them, and the summer blockbuster season still remained a few months out, corporate media sought to preemptively sour the release of the film “Melania.” As it turned out, early criticism did little to prevent the new release from having the best documentary opening weekend in over a decade.

Offering a behind-the-scenes look at the first lady in the three weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, The Hollywood Reporter projected over $8 million for the film as it came in third overall for the weekend behind the movies “Send Help” and “Iron Lung.”

“Some cinema owners downgraded their projections to as low as $2 million to $4 million,” the outlet reported regarding earlier expectations of the film. “By Friday afternoon, almost every Hollywood studio showed Melania coming in between $8 million to $9 million after looking at matinee and early evening grosses and consulting with exhibitors.”

In fact, the movie, which had an opening day audience 72% comprised of women over 55-years-old, earned an “A” CinemaScore despite the tipped review scale from Rotten Tomatoes, which included one of the outlet’s approved critics admitting he would “never watch Melania.”

Box Office Mojo credited the film with just over $7 million as it opened in 1,778 theaters compared to the more than 3,000 of the top two spots, which earned about $20 million and $18 million, respectively. Expected to stream within a few weeks, the film cost Amazon $75 million when combining the $40 million for licensing rights and another $35 million for marketing in a category where $5 million to $7 million is the norm.

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Ahead of the weekend, MS NOW host Jen Psaki contended, “No matter what tea leaves you look at… the message is the same: nobody likes what the Trump administration is doing right now.”

“I mean, take, for example, first lady Melania Trump’s new movie ‘Melania,’ that’s what it’s called,” the former Biden administration White House press secretary said before later asserting based off a Rolling Stone article, “Donald Trump has become so toxic that even the people who worked on his own wife’s movie cannot stomach associating themselves with him.”

Likewise, even as its success became measurable, “Saturday Night Live” continued the negative coverage during the “Weekend Update” segment, where co-host Colin Jost referenced Cynthia Erivo’s “Wicked: For Good” as he quipped beside a poster with an added green color, “This week, a documentary about Melania Trump debuted in theaters. It’s titled ‘Wicked: For Real.'”

“Melania was directed by ‘Rush Hour’ director Brett Ratner — which explains this scene,” Michael Che went on as a clip aired, replacing Jackie Chan with the first lady as co-star Chris Tucker asked, “Do you speaka any English? Do you understand the words that are comin’ outta my mouth?” much to the delight of Jost.

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(Video Credit: Saturday Night Live)

Lauding the success of the film when compared to corporate media’s coverage, Breitbart’s John Nolte wrote, “The legacy media are eating crow once more now that Melania has scored the best box office opening for a documentary in a decade.”

“Over and over, Trump supporters were taunted by the corporate media about empty theaters, an imminent box office humiliation, and zero advance ticket sales. Well, reality has once again debunked these serial liars,” he went on before he rattled off titles that the first lady’s documentary had outperformed on opening weekend, including films with leads like Benedict Cumberbatch, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Lawrence, and Dwayne Johnson. Others suggested that the film likely would have done even better had it not been for the impact of winter storms.

“None of the titles listed above faced a relentless, multi-billion-dollar, coordinated propaganda assault from multinational corporations in the political and entertainment media,” said Nolte, who asserted as others called out gaslighting, “Once again, the Trumps have made complete fools of the Worst People In The World.”

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Kevin Haggerty
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