Melania is officially a flop - but Amazon won't mind

It’s official… Melania, Amazon’s $75m hagiography of the US first lady, is not only a critical flop but, to no-one’s great surprise, a financial one too.

The universally panned film took $10.97 million in the US in its first week of release – a relatively large amount for a documentary, albeit it one shown in an unusually high 1,500 cinemas nationwide and plugged incessantly by the commander-in-chief across his social media channels.

But that figure dropped to $3.57 million in its second week, down 67 per cent on the previous week, and just $886,000 in its third, a massive drop of 75 per cent. With US cinemas tending to keep half of all ticket sales for themselves, Amazon has so far recouped an estimated $7.7 million on its whopping investment. The firm paid a staggering $40 million to acquire the rights, despite a lack of any serious competition, then shelled out $35 million on marketing it.

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When Amazon acquired Melania in early 2025, a studio spokesperson said, “We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only – because we think customers are going to love it.”

But by a remarkable coincidence, the company has done very well indeed out of new tax laws introduced by President Trump’s administration. According to a securities filing made last week, the company’s current US taxes, an accounting measure of taxes incurred last year, declined to $1.2 billion from $9 billion. Meanwhile, its pretax US profit increased by 44.5%, to $89.5 billion. On a cash basis, the company paid $2.8 billion in federal income taxes last year after paying more than $7 billion in each of the prior two years.

It comes as a result of a law signed by Trump last July both allowing companies to claim immediate deductions for certain capital investments, and permitting immediate deductions for new domestic research. Amazon lobbied on the tax bill and was involved in pushing for the changes to the research deduction.

So they may be being mocked for their crappy documentary – but that $75m is a drop in the ocean compared to the huge benefits the behemoth just happens to be pulling in thanks to Trump.