• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Amazon’s motivations for its over-the-top treatment of a documentary featuring First Lady Melania Trump are being questioned.

“The film’s rollout is huge — a $35 million marketing campaign that includes television commercials during NFL playoff games and a premiere simulcast in 25 theaters in the United States,” according to The New York Times. 

And that's on top of the $40 million Amazon paid for the rights to the movie, about $26 million more than the next closest bidder, Disney. 

“The deal occurred shortly after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and critics called it a move to gain influence with the administration,” according to NBC News. “At the time, Amazon said, ‘We licensed the upcoming Melania Trump documentary film and series for one reason and one reason only—because we think customers are going to love it.’” 

“Melania: Twenty Days to History,” hits 3,300 theaters worldwide starting Friday.

“This has to be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing,” Ted Hope, the former co-head of movies at Amazon Studios, told The New York Times. “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe? How can that not be the case?”

The film, which captures the first lady’s life in the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, is expected to bring in $2 million to $5 million across 1,500 locations domestically this weekend, according to data from Boxoffice Pro.

“At first glance, that’s a solid-enough opening weekend for a documentary—but it pales in comparison to what Amazon has spent on 'Melania,'” notes Barron’s. “The first lady rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday to promote the film, and the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday that the movie was a ‘MUST WATCH’ and ‘selling out, FAST!’” 

Ads featuring images of the first lady are running on television, on billboards, in subway stations, plastered on buses across the country, and the Sphere in Las Vegas.

The movie was produced by Melania Trump herself and directed by filmmaker Brett Ratner, accused of sexual harassment, according to Vox. 

“So far, Melania has struggled to fill seats, so much so that the realization sparked a social media trend this week in which users post their local AMC or Regal Cinema’s seat availability for the film’s premiere. Across the country, theaters are empty," according to The New Republic. “The situation has become so dire that conservative groups have gotten involved, buying out entire blocks of seats or even whole screenings in a flagrant effort to save face for the president.”

“This isn’t organic demand,” one GOP insider told gossip columnist Rob Shuter’s Naughty but Nice substack. “It’s about optics. Empty theaters look terrible.”

“Craigslist ads have popped up, with at least one offering to pay people as much as $50 to attend screenings of the film, though it’s not clear if the listings are legitimate or a joke,” according to The New Republic. 

A meme is making the rounds on social media, although a search of Variety’s website doesn’t yield a story with the quote: “Variety magazine on the 'Melania' film: If they showed this film on a plane, people would still walk out."