What to Know
When Melania Trump decided to release a documentary, she probably wasn’t imagining that it would make Michelle Obama’s more popular. In the days leading up to the release of Melania, critics online were convinced that almost no one would actually watch it. That did not prove to be true, as the film ended up bringing in $7 million opening weekend. But unexpectedly, the film’s release has also led to a 13,000 percent increase in views for Michelle’s documentary, Becoming, which came out in 2020.
The surge in views happened during Melania’s opening weekend.
According to a report from Entertainment Weekly, data from Luminate shows that people watched 47.5 million minutes of Michelle’s film the weekend Melania’s documentary came out. The weekend prior to that, Becoming was viewed for 354,000 minutes. On social media, people thought the uptick in people streaming Michelle’s doc seemed petty and also pretty hilarious. They found it especially amusing given that President Donald Trump is quite obsessed with his predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Some speculated that while Melania might not really care about the popularity of Michelle’s doc, the surge in views is probably “a massive embarrassment to” the president.
But some Trump critics also brought up Melania’s 2016 speech that sounded a lot like Michelle’s 2008 speech. Someone on Reddit wrote, “Michelle stole opening viewers like Melania stole that speech 🎤”
Overall, though, people could understand why there’s been more interest in Michelle’s documentary lately. “I will never tire of watching her, listening to her, reading her,” one person on Reddit said of Michelle’s film. “She’s a class act and we were lucky to have her share her life with us.” Some people didn’t even know it existed until the surge in viewers was reported, so in a way, we have Melania to thank for that.
Viewers’ reactions to Melania’s film are very mixed…and suspicious to some.
Melania’s doc did better than expected, but not everyone’s impressed by that. Late-night host Stephen Colbert joked that the amount of money made from ticket sales isn’t really that impressive when you consider how much money was spent making the film. On The Late Show, he said, “Seven million dollars would seem like a solid opening, until you realize that’s less than 10 percent of the $75 million Amazon spent on the documentary, which includes paying the first lady herself at least $28 million.”
At the time of publication, Melania had 1.3/10 stars on IMDb. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an 8 percent score from critics, but a 99 percent score from “verified” moviegoers. Vincent Mancini from GQ wrote, “Quite possibly the least revealing documentary ever made. Even her favorite recording artist seems to be a lie.” Meanwhile, Leigh Paatsch from the Daily Telegraph said, “The whole vibe is eerily off from start to finish, leaving you feeling as if you’ve spent 105 minutes alone on a merry-go-round in an abandoned amusement park.”
