How did Melania fare at the box office opening weekend?

Nathan Jolly

February 3, 2026 2:46

How did Melania fare at the box office opening weekend?

Box office bomb

Melania, the documentary tracking Donald Trump’s wife in the 20 days leading up to his 2025 inauguration, enjoyed a quiet opening weekend in Australian cinemas.

As we reported last week, as of midday on Wednesday — less than two days before it was due in theatres — Hoyts had sold just one pre-sale ticket to opening day.

Things picked up in the subsequent days, but not terribly so. Over the film’s three-day opening weekend (Fri-Sun), it grossed $32,399 in Australia, making it the 31st highest-grossing film in the country last weekend.

For comparison’s sake, horror film Iron Lung, which opened on the same day as Melania, grossed $1.68m while Sam Raimi thriller Send Help (also sharing a release date with Melania) pulled $1.08m.

Slightly in Melania’s favour is that it had a notably smaller release than the aforementioned two films. Melania opened in just 33 cinemas nationwide, compared to 244 and 308, respectively — so total box office comparisons may seem unfairly weighted.

Having said all that, Melania’s box office per screen was also notably smaller, with each cinema taking just $982 over the three days, compared to $6,870 per screen for Iron Lung, and $3,503 for Send Help.

Things aren’t likely to get much better. The film’s six-day run ends on Wednesday, meaning that opening weekend audiences are likely to make up the majority of its overall box office in Australia.

Melania is directed by Rush Hour director Brett Ratner and has a A$50 million worldwide marketing budget, some of which was spent on a full-page advertisement in the Australian Financial Review, and pre-roll podcast ads on News Corp’s The Front.

Amazon MGM Studios paid A$57.2m for the rights to the film, which has been released in over 5,000 cinemas worldwide.

Here’s the trailer: watch it if you dare.