Last week, the “Melania” documentary was finally released, and it shattered records in terms of the opening weekend in this niche.
Of course, documentaries are not something that are going to age well, so when ticket sales fell off during the second week, the media pounced.
Not only that, but Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and “Phantom Thread” director Paul Thomas Anderson demanded his song be removed because he was reportedly not consulted about it beforehand.
Seeing the opening week reaction to the movie was pretty interesting.
The documentary took in about $7 million, which is pretty significant, but not nearly what it cost to make the movie or what Amazon paid for the rights to the movie ($40 million). Although Amazon will likely recoup its money on the streaming end.
Critics crushed the movie, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 8% approval. However, verified moviegoers gave it a 99% positive rating, and this is where it gets interesting. The overall rating was only 29%, but that includes people who did not buy a ticket. In other words, the liberal horde is so obsessed with Trump that they decided to go on the site and crush the movie.
The movie did fall off significantly in the second week, but that is to be expected with a documentary. I would imagine the people who wanted to see it saw it early. Let’s face it… this is not “Mission Impossible,” so I don’t see prolonged interest, especially when you know it will be streaming soon.
As we noted above, the documentary fell by about 67%, whereas a typical movie would fall off between about 25-40% in its second week.
“Melania” grossed nearly $2.5 million in its second week, with its overall ticket sales now sitting at more than $13 million, and Amazon appears to be happy about it.
Distribution chief Kevin Wilson stated, "Together, theatrical and streaming represent two distinct value-creating moments that amplify the film’s overall impact.”
Wilson believes all the momentum and attention from that first week will boost Prime signups for people who would rather watch the documentary at home. And let’s face facts, subscribers are really what this is all about.
I have to admit, I was not shocked when Greenwood and company whined about their music being in the movie, even though Greenwood does not own the rights to the music.
Greenwood’s office stated, "It has come to our attention that a piece of music from 'Phantom Thread' has been used in the ‘Melania‘ documentary.”
It continued, "While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary."
Greenwood and Anderson claim that Universal licensed the music to Amazon MGM without their permission. So, surprise, a liberal entertainer is upset that his music is featured in something with the name Trump on it. I have not yet seen a response by Universal, but if it did license the music without permission (assuming the contract requires it), it will surely face legal repercussions from Amazon as well, as the film would have to be rescored.
