2026 promises to be a big one for cinema, but long before we get to December's Dunesday (Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday releasing on the same day), we've got other box office behemoths like The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Toy Story 5.
January got off to a promising start with 28 Years: The Bone Temple and Primate, but sadly for the First Lady of the United States, Melania is caught in several storms of controversy.
Following Melania Trump in the 20 days that led up to Donald Trump's January 2025 inauguration, Melania is a movie that promises rare behind-the-scenes footage of "Mrs. Trump as she orchestrates inauguration plans, navigates the complexities of the White House transition, and moves her family back to the nation’s capital."
Jeff Bezos' Amazon won a bidding war for the documentary, apparently shelling out $40 million for the rights and beating off competition from the likes of Disney and Netflix. It's said that Amazon was clear ahead of Disney's second-place offer of $14 million.
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While Donald Trump has been making numerous posts telling people to rush to buy tickets because they're "selling out, fast," some box office predictions claim it'll earn between $1 million and $2 million during its opening weekend in the US.
If reports of tepid ticket sales weren't enough to contend with, Amazon supposedly splashed out a further $35 million on a massive marketing campaign. All of this has seen Melania grab headlines for all the wrong reasons, but according to Rolling Stone, 'chaos' behind the camera has made things even worse.
Even before Melania headed the theaters, there was controversy due to Brett Ratner being attached as director. Known for the Rush House movies, Red Dragon, and X-Men: The Last Stand, Ratner was embroiled in 2017's #MeToo movement, where numerous allegations were made against him. These included Oliva Munn and Elliot Page, leading to Warner Bros. severing ties with Ratner on the same day six women accused him of sexual assault.
Rolling Stone reports on how someone close to the filming of Melania praised the FLOTUS for being friendly and engaging, adding: "She was totally nice. She was the opposite of Brett Ratner.
The outlet writes: "One person familiar with the production estimated that some two-thirds of the crew members who worked on the film in New York had requested not to have their names formally credited on the documentary."
Elsewhere, another person apparently asked for their name to be removed from the credits after experiencing President Trump's first year of his second term.
Returning to Ratner, someone on production said: "I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this. But Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project."
That same person claims they weren't aware of Ratner's involvement until just days before filming, maintaining they wouldn't have worked on the film if they'd known.
Another added: "There was more talk about Brett being slimy than there was about Melania.”
While the article is full of stories about Ratner throwing gum into other people's cups and getting his own food on a day there were no breaks, another did defend him, saying: "He’s an intuitive, incredible, emotional, intelligent director, and you will see that on the screen.
"It’s not just a documentary, it’s a film — he’s a filmmaker that can go long shots, big shots. He sees everything from a different point of view [than a documentarian].”
There's the implication that a dark cloud is hanging over Melania as it heads to theaters, with one anonymous worker concluding: "Unfortunately, if it does flop. I would really feel great about it."
UNILADTech has reached out to Amazon for comment.