{"id":18814,"date":"2026-02-10T02:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/melania-falls-steeply-at-the-box-office\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:22:22","slug":"melania-falls-steeply-at-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/melania-falls-steeply-at-the-box-office\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Melania&#8217; falls steeply at the box office"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/jake-coyle\">             <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/50dbb4a\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1024x1024+0+0\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F3d%2F04%2F047eee3a49afab66cfe0f0317879%2Fcoyle-jake.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1770576769000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Hollywood largely ceded attention to football over a slow box-office weekend, with the survival thriller &ldquo;Send Help&rdquo; repeating as No. 1 in ticket sales and the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/melania-trump-documentary-safety-inauguration-33bea4988eaf64d4a7214b2d4e51471d\">Melania Trump documentary &ldquo;Melania&rdquo;<\/a><\/span>  falling sharply in its second weekend. <\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl\">Super Bowl weekend<\/a><\/span>  is typically one of the lowest attended moviegoing times of the year. It was the second slowest weekend last year and in 2024 it ranked dead last for moviegoing. <\/p>\n<p>Studios instead put their focus on advertising movies for the massive television audience. Among the trailers expected to hit the NFL broadcast Sunday were The Walt Disney Co.&#8217;s &ldquo;Mandalorian and Grogu,&rdquo; Lionsgate&rsquo;s Michael Jackson biopic, &ldquo;Michael&rdquo; and Universal Pictures&rsquo; &ldquo;The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>In North American theaters, the Disney.-20th Century Studios release &ldquo;Send Help,&rdquo; directed by Sam Raimi, lead all films with $10 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. With $53.7 million globally thus far, the R-rated survival thriller has proved a solid midbudget success. Disney meanwhile watched its remarkably long-lasting <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/zootopia-2-movie-review-292761226b0b7bee0ba470281b6832d8\">&ldquo;Zootopia 2&#8243;<\/a><\/span>  cross $1.8 billion worldwide in its 11th week of release. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Melania,&rdquo; from Amazon MGM, added 300 theaters in its second weekend but dropped steeply with to $2.4 million in ticket sales, down 67% from <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/box-office-melania-trump-send-help-e200bb50d83dd910d079b671bdf79a2c\">its much-discussed debut.<\/a><\/span>  The rapid downturn means the Brett Ratner-directed documentary is likely heading toward flop territory given its high price tag. Amazon MGM paid $40 million for film rights, plus some $35 million to market it. <\/p>\n<p>The North American total for &ldquo;Melania&rdquo; stands at $13.4 million. Amazon MGM has not released international figures, though they&rsquo;re expected to be paltry. <\/p>\n<p>Kevin Wilson, head of domestic distribution for the studio, said the movie&rsquo;s box-office performance &ldquo;is a critical first moment that validates our wholistic distribution strategy, building awareness, engagement, and provides momentum ahead of the film&rsquo;s eventual debut on Prime Video.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The film&rsquo;s ticket sales &mdash; which would be very good for a less expensive documentary &mdash; were a talking point throughout the week. Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel hammered the movie&rsquo;s sales. Kimmel called them a &ldquo;rigged outcome.&rdquo; Elsewhere in theaters, the Italy-set Kevin James romantic comedy &ldquo;Solo Mio&rdquo; debuted with a robust $7.2 million, a major win for Angel Studios, best known for its faith-based releases. &ldquo;Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience,&rdquo; a K-pop concert film released by Bleecker Street, launched with $5.6 million, and an additional $13.2 million overseas. The Luc Besson-directed Bram Stoker adaptation <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/dracula-movie-review-caleb-landry-jones-731533b2ecf84cb95ab5695ffb4f7471\">&ldquo;Dracula&rdquo;<\/a><\/span>  opened with $4.5 million, a studio-best debut for the indie distributor Vertical. <\/p>\n<p>One of the most unusual releases in theaters, however, remains the low-budget indie &ldquo;Iron Lung.&rdquo; The YouTube filmmaker Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, self-financed and self-distributed the R-rated video game adaptation, along with writing, directing and starring in it. In its second weekend, &ldquo;Iron Lung&rdquo; collected $6.2 million, bringing its two-week total to $31.2 million. It cost $3 million to make. <\/p>\n<h2>Top 10 movies by domestic box office<\/h2>\n<p>With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:<\/p>\n<p>1. &ldquo;Send Help,&rdquo; $10 million. <\/p>\n<p>2. &ldquo;Solo Mio,&rdquo; $7.2 million. <\/p>\n<p>3. &ldquo;Iron Lung,&rdquo; $6 million. <\/p>\n<p>4. &ldquo;Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience,&rdquo; $5.6 million. <\/p>\n<p>5. &ldquo;Dracula,&rdquo; $4.5 million. <\/p>\n<p>6. &ldquo;Zootopia 2,&rdquo; $4 million. <\/p>\n<p>7. &ldquo;Avatar: Fire and Ash,&rdquo; $3.5 million. <\/p>\n<p>8. &ldquo;The Strangers: Chapter 3,&rdquo; $3.5 million. <\/p>\n<p>9. &ldquo;Shelter,&rdquo; $2.4 million. <\/p>\n<p>10. &ldquo;Melania,&rdquo; $2.4 million. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/box-office-scream-7-melania-f0d26c19af33c0e5ded9a1c6b8ae79d0\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Hollywood largely ceded attention to football over a slow box-office weekend, with the survival thriller &ldquo;Send Help&rdquo; repeating as No. 1 in ticket sales and the Melania Trump documentary &ldquo;Melania&rdquo; falling sharply in its second weekend. Super Bowl weekend is typically one of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}