Melania makes just £33,000 at UK box office after near-empty screenings

Melania, the documentary about Donald Trump’s wife, the current US first lady, might have generated a media firestorm, but it failed to dent the UK box office in its first weekend of release, opening at just No 29.

Brett Ratner’s film amassed £32,974 from 155 cinemas in total, a screen average of £212.80. While the takings are a far cry from the reported $75m (£54.6m) paid by Amazon to distribute and promote the film, it’s not the disaster that was projected.

Ahead of its premiere, UK ticket sales were described as “soft”, according to Tim Richards, the chief executive of Vue, and on the day of release, many screenings across the UK were sparsely attended, with the film even playing to empty rooms in several locations over the weekend. However, some screening rooms, namely in Vue Islington, were booked up and filled with journalists.

Reporters rushed to see the film on Friday after Amazon decided not to preview it ahead of time. The Independent attended a near-empty screening at Vue Westfield, in Stratford, where four other audience members were present, two of whom were reporters.

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In the US, the film exceeded predictions on its opening day, grossing $2.9m (£2.1m) from 1,778 cinemas, but was still a flop. It was ultimately beaten at the box office by Iron Lung, an independently financed horror film made by YouTuber Mark Fischbach.

Inspired by the 2022 horror game created by David Szymanski, Iron Lung was made for $3m (£2.1m) and has made $21m (£15.3m) to date – seven times its budget. In the UK, the film reached No 4 at the box office, with takings of £948,731, beating the week’s big release, Jason Statham action film, Shelter (£946,903).

The week’s No 1 film is Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-nominated weepie Hamnet, whose takings of £1.4m brought its overall total to £14.8m.

Melania follows the 20 days leading up to her husband’s second inauguration in January 2025.

Since its release, reviews have been largely negative, with the film sitting at a measly 10 per cent on the platform. However, viewers on the site have given the documentary a 99 per cent score, in an apparent demonstration of support for Trump.

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In a one-star review for The Independent, Nick Hilton wrote: “Perhaps Melania is merely a piece of post-modern post-entertainment. After all, it is transparently not a documentary.”

Hilton continues: “Melania spends most scenes playing a staged version of herself, and shots of the first lady are composed with all the deliberateness Ratner brought to his work on X-Men: The Last Stand. This is somewhere between reality TV and pure fiction.”