My colleague Bob Hoge had the good fortune to attend a screening of the new "Melania" documentary on Thursday in the Century City area of Los Angeles.
Bob thought it was a "fascinating look behind the scenes in the corridors of power — something that for a political junkie like me was ambrosia."
It was her movie, and she shone, but some of my favorite moments featured Donald and their son, Barron. At one point, when someone is detailing a long list of things the president has to do during that day, he quipped (paraphrasing, because there was no recording allowed), “And then I Make America Great Again?”
He was also struck by how powerful the moment was of them coming in and Joe Biden leaving, seemingly barely able to walk, and thankfully gone, so he could no longer harm America.
Whistleblower Exposes LA Metro's Plan to Sideline Buses Advertising 'Melania' Documentary
Looks like a lot of people are joining Bob in liking it, to the surprise of the liberal media.
First Lady Melania Trump arrives with President Donald J. Trump, Chairman of the Trump Kennedy Center, for the red-carpet premiere of her documentary “Melania” at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. pic.twitter.com/BJTy42DSV9
— The Trump Kennedy Center (@kencen) January 30, 2026
According to Deadline, the movie is expected to bring in $8.1 million, making it the best documentary debut in a decade, reporting that "sales are gaining, with Florida and Texas quite large, for the First Lady’s big-screen debut."
Not only that, but the viewer ratings are off the charts high.
[B]ut the exit scores are quite royal with an A CinemaScore, 5 stars on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak, and get this — an 89% definite recommend; unheard for any movie. If a movie is in the 70 percentile range, that’s outstanding. [....]
The turnout here is almost like that of a faith-based movie: 72% women, with 72% over 55. Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 99% while critics have based the movie at 6%. Melania is playing best in the South (12% over the norm) and South Central with the Cinemark Palace 21 in Boca Raton, FL the pic’s current highest grossing location with over $10K. Pic’s top grossing markets are Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Miami, Minnesota, Nashville, Jackson, MI; St. Louis, Las Vegas, Cleveland — the list goes on…no NYC or LA in this bunch.
So virtually all the viewers are rating it highly, yet the critics rate it at six percent.
Talk about bias and completely missing the boat on what the people think - could there be a sharper contrast? And it's doing well despite the effort to ding it. Indeed, that might be helping it, as most people don't trust reviewers.
It’s the election all over again. https://t.co/xqPAyUPJmj pic.twitter.com/OHAV3HGEr8
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) January 31, 2026
Bad news for the obsessional culturati who have been working to establish the Melania movie as a world-historic failure and embarrassment: It's going to make $8M in its first weekend, which is a colossal opening for a documentary.https://t.co/IKHFMYbXsk
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) January 31, 2026
The left is just going to have to cope, but you can hear the gnashing of teeth over this one.
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