"Third-place opening weekends are not usually the stuff of box-office headlines, but on Saturday, you couldn't pick up your phone without reading that Melania, Brett Ratner's gauzy, glad-handing portrait of the first lady, was doing much better than expected. Deadline called its opening the strongest for a documentary in a decade, and the New York Times wrote that its $8 million opening was 60 percent above industry predictions. By Sunday, however, the latter number had been revised drastically downward, from $8 million to barely over $7 million."
"But it doesn't seem far-fetched, even with Donald Trump's poll numbers cratering, that a small fraction of his 77 million voters would turn out for the film-either out of genuine interest or simply as a show of support-and although there wasn't a single theater showing Melania in the city of Philadelphia, the Friday matinee I attended in a South Jersey suburb was mostly full."
"The audience-perhaps 70 people or so-wasn't especially vocal, although there was a smattering of applause at the closing credits, and one person repeatedly clapped during the footage of Trump's second inauguration. But I heard appreciative murmurs on the way out, and one person said, loud enough for the entire theater to hear, "That was a good movie." Critics, perhaps needless to say, did not agree: Metacritic characterizes their response as " overwhelming dislike," with one particularly scathing pan calling it " a gilded trash remake""
Melania opened better than many predictions, with early reports citing an $8 million start and Deadline calling it the strongest documentary opening in a decade. The $8 million figure was revised down to just over $7 million by Sunday, and that comparison excludes concert films like The Eras Tour. Social media showed empty-theater screenshots and a Craigslist post offering $50 to attend, though the post's offer lacked confirmation. A Friday matinee in a South Jersey suburb was mostly full. Audience reaction included scattered applause and a voiced compliment, while critical response was overwhelmingly negative on Metacritic, including a review calling the film "a gilded trash remake."
Read at Slate Magazine
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