Credit: Régine Mahaux

‘Melania’ earned less than £33,000 at UK box office during opening weekend

Thu 5 February 2026 18:08, UK

Brett Ratner’s new documentary, Melania, celebrating the First Lady, earned just £33,00 at the box office in the UK on its opening weekend.

The Amazon MGM Studios production arrived in cinemas across the globe on January 30th, and was shown in a total of 155 cinema screens across the UK.

However, despite the wide rollout, it only managed to generate £32,974, which equates to £212.80 per screen it was shown. Meanwhile, in Australia, it earned the equivalent of around £16,500 and was shown in 33 screens across the country.

The documentary is one of the most expensive documentaries of all time, with a $40 million production budget, as well as a reported $35 million marketing budget.

In the United States, it has fared significantly better, earning over $7 million domestically during its opening weekend, placing it third at the box office. For comparison, it’s only reached 29 in the UK box office.

Curiously, the audience for Melania was largely comprised of older women, with 70 per cent of cinema-goers women and 72 per cent aged 55 or over.

According to Politico, Melania has been most successful in red states across the South of the US, such as Texas and Florida.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, Melania didn’t generate a penny at the box office. Last week, days before it was due to arrive in cinemas across the country, the South African distributor for Melania cancelled the release of the documentary, citing “recent developments”.

The documentary was thrown into further controversy in recent days when director Brett Ratner was pictured alongside Jeffrey Epstein with two women in the new Epstein files.

Ratner has since responded to the image, telling Fox News Digital, “About 20 years ago, I had a girlfriend. I was in love with her. We were engaged. She was my fiancée. We went to an event, and we were sitting on the couch, and the photo was taken at that event.”

The Melania director added: “I didn’t have a personal relationship with him [Epstein]. I didn’t know him.”