‘Melania’ is billed as a documentary. Experts say it’s a $75 million PR project

The story behind the new documentary “Melania,” chronicling First Lady Melania Trump’s life in the 20 days before her husband returned to office last year, has some people questioning the real motives behind the film. And as it opens on 1,500 screens nationwide Friday, the movie is facing some tough box office projections.

Experts who spoke to Straight Arrow News said Trump had an unusual degree of editorial control over the documentary, for which she is credited as an executive producer. Rather than an unbiased look at one of the world’s best known women, one expert said, the final product from Amazon is “a puff piece.”

Creative control

It’s not uncommon these days for larger-than-life public figures to have a say over how they’re depicted in documentaries about them. For example, Taylor Swift had significant creative control over her concert film “The Eras Tour.” Michael Jordan had the final cut of “The Last Dance,” a documentary series about the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-98 championship season.

“It has become a little bit more common, and so we’re not going to fault them for that,” Nina Gilden Seavey, founding director of the documentary center at George Washington University, told Straight Arrow News.

However, documentary filmmakers generally have a different reason for giving subjects more creative control.

“This is seen as a progressive policy among filmmakers who are dealing with disadvantaged communities or marginalized or somewhat voiceless communities and believe that they are acting in an exploitative and extractive way by taking these stories and excluding the subjects of these films from any meaningful role in shaping what the message looks like,” Edward Wasserman, media ethicist and professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, told SAN.

Documentary or PR?

Both experts SAN spoke with agreed that “Melania” is different.

“It’s not normal,” Wasserman said.

“This seems a little bit more extraordinary in terms of it,” Seavey added. “This is basically a puff piece.”

Seavey said people who are going to see the doc need to temper their expectations.

“It’s just an extended piece of content that has to do with Melania, this kind of little window into her life,” she said. “But it’s not how we think of a documentary.”

Wasserman said it’s more about the first lady’s public persona than a true glimpse into the world of that role.

“It’s all about burnishing Melania Trump’s image,” he said. “And it is all about endearing Amazon to the White House as a loyal and trusted collaborator in image creation.”

The first lady has said the film gave her a chance to tell her own story following the release of her memoir. She spoke about the project Wednesday, ahead of a premiere Thursday at the Kennedy Center (now referred to by the Trump administration as the Trump-Kennedy Center) in Washington.

“My new film, ‘Melania,’ provides a window into an important period for America, the 47th presidential inauguration,” she said. “For the first time in history, people will witness the 20 days leading up to the inauguration, through the eyes of an incoming first lady.”

The documentary was directed by Brett Ratner, most known for the “Rush Hour” franchise. He’s been mostly quiet in Hollywood since facing misconduct allegations during the #MeToo movement. He has denied wrongdoing.

Amazon’s motive

Amazon reportedly paid $40 million to acquire the film and is spending another $35 million on marketing. The extravagant budget raises questions about the company’s reasons for releasing the film, particularly about whether it needs regulatory approvals from President Donald Trump’s administration.

“This is itself an extraordinary amount of money to pay to the subject of a documentary,” Wasserman said. “That kind of money, or any kind of money, is already problematic, but this makes the entire project look like a cover for an improper payment to the White House.”

Seavey agreed.

“It just felt like a very public shakedown,” she said.

Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, was seated prominently with other tech executives in the second row behind Trump at his inauguration last January, and the two have had close ties while Trump’s been in office.

If Amazon needs help from the administration, the cost of “Melania” would be “money extremely well spent,” Wasserman said.

However, he said, Amazon could face backlash in Hollywood, where it has expanded its presence in recent years after acquiring the MGM studio.

“It’ll be interesting to see what this does to Amazon’s stature within the artistic Hollywood community,” Wasserman said.

Ticket sales

Amazon seems unlikely to directly recoup its investment because ticket sales for “Melania” are, in a word, horrendous.

“If you’re going to buy a ticket for something you can pick your seats so you can see what seats are left,” Seavey said. “And they’re all empty.”

The film is opening in nearly 1,500 cinemas, but projections for the all-important opening weekend range anywhere from $1 million to $5 million.

If the film makes $5 million, it would have recouped 6.66% of its budget.

That’s at least better than notorious bomb “Gigli,” which made only 4.93% of its budget back on opening weekend in 2003.

“It just needs to be satisfying to Donald Trump in that bubble in which he lives,” Seavey said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, well, we got a $75 million deal on the Melania film.’ He can actually say that.”

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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief