President Donald Trump couldn’t resist gushing about his wife’s Hollywood success during remarks to Republican lawmakers this week, repeatedly calling First Lady Melania Trump a “movie star” and praising her documentary as “hot.”
Speaking at a GOP retreat on Monday evening, Trump pivoted from discussing drug prices to celebrate his wife’s cinematic achievement. “I was so proud. I went home and told our great first lady, who is now a movie star. Can you believe it? That movie was hot, and it is hot. She became a movie star. It was a good movie,” Trump declared.
The self-titled film “Melania” shattered box office records since its January 30 opening, debuting to $7 million and marking the highest launch for a non-concert documentary in over a decade. The film surpassed 2024’s “Am I Racist?” which opened to $4.5 million.
Directed by Brett Ratner—his first film since sexual misconduct allegations in 2017 effectively exiled him from Hollywood—the documentary follows the 20 days leading up to Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025. The film offers an unprecedented look at the transition from private citizen to first lady for the second time, though Melania Trump herself insists it is not a documentary. “Some have called this a documentary. It is not,” she told the premiere audience. “It is a creative experience that offers perspectives, insights and moments.”
Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for worldwide licensing rights—the highest price ever paid for a commissioned documentary—and spent an additional $35 million on a global marketing campaign. The lavish spending has sparked speculation that the tech giant sought to curry favor with the Trump administration. Muse Films, a production company the first lady launched in November 2025, shares credit on the project.
The film premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on January 29, with President Trump and the first lady walking the black carpet together. The event drew cabinet members, conservative influencers, and celebrities including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., rapper Nicki Minaj, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. When asked what audiences could expect, Melania told reporters they would see “humor, you will see grief, you will see fashion.”
The documentary began streaming on Amazon Prime this Monday, March 9, extending its reach beyond theatrical audiences. Within one day, the film shot to the top of Prime Video’s charts in the United States.
This isn’t the first time Trump has publicly celebrated his wife’s cinematic success. During a Board of Peace event in Washington, D.C., on February 19, the president joked about potential marital competition. “Big movie star, and I always say it’s trouble, because I always say there’s not room in one family for two stars,” Trump said. “I told her we can’t have two stars in one family, so I don’t know what that means, but it’s not good. But it is good because we’re proud of her.”
Despite the record-breaking opening, the documentary experienced a steep 67 percent drop in its second weekend, earning $2.4 million. The film has now grossed approximately $16.7 million worldwide—strong for a documentary, but a far cry from the $75 million Amazon invested in licensing and marketing. Critics savaged the project, leaving it with an 11 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences awarded it a 98 percent approval rating—the largest critic-audience disparity in the review aggregator’s 27-year history.
Trump has repeatedly emphasized the documentary’s popularity with female audiences. “People in the United States love the first lady. She did the movie and it’s become the biggest-selling documentary in 20 years, can you believe? The theaters are all packed. Women, especially, they go back and they see it two or three times, four times,” he claimed during his remarks. Audience data supports part of his assertion: opening weekend crowds were 72 percent female and 83 percent were over age 45, according to Amazon MGM.
The documentary’s combined production and marketing expenses make it one of the most expensive documentaries ever made. By comparison, the acclaimed 2018 documentary “RBG” about Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a marketing budget of just $3 million and grossed $14.4 million domestically. While “Melania” fell well short of covering its costs theatrically, Amazon executives have emphasized that streaming performance will determine the project’s ultimate success. A follow-up docuseries featuring additional footage is already in production.
For Trump, the documentary represents another opportunity to celebrate his family’s accomplishments on the national stage. His repeated references to Melania as a “movie star” during official remarks underscore his pride in her achievement, even as he jokes about the challenges of sharing the spotlight. Whether the streaming release can match the theatrical buzz will determine if Amazon’s record-breaking investment pays dividends beyond political goodwill.
