"It's not because "Melania" is an exquisitely made, informative documentary. It's not even a documentary. Instead, it falls in the category of glossy advertisement or unconvincing propaganda film with a multimillion-dollar music licensing budget. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the rights to film. That offer came with a jaw-dropping $35 million marketing budget, which Amazon spent while also cutting 16,000 corporate jobs."
"The film is the latest streamer-funded, carefully choreographed, boring, celebrity puff piece being branded as a documentary. Previous examples of documentaries in this category include "Michael Jackson's This Is It," "With Love, Meghan," and, most recently, "Victoria Beckham," a Netflix docuseries. (To be fair, all three of those documentaries were far more revealing than "Melania"; the only thing that one learns about Melania Trump during her 104-minute infomercial is that her favorite song is Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean.")"
Amazon's "Melania" opened to $7 million, marking the highest debut for a non-music documentary in over a decade. The film functions as a glossy advertisement and propaganda-style puff piece rather than an informative documentary. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for filming rights and allocated an estimated $35 million to marketing while conducting large corporate layoffs. The film continues a trend of streamer-funded celebrity profiles such as "This Is It," "With Love, Meghan," and "Victoria Beckham." Politically aligned, anti-woke and faith-based documentaries have proven theatrical viability, with recent examples earning millions at the box office.
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