Melania draws brutal critic scores as box office splits sharply

The new Melania has landed in theaters with an unusual profile: a strong U.S. opening weekend for a documentary, paired with sharply negative critical reception and a far weaker start in several overseas markets. The result is a release that’s generating plenty of attention, but still faces a steep climb to justify its price tag in pure movie-theater sales.

Rotten Tomatoes scores drive the conversation

A big part of the film’s visibility is the stark gap between critics and verified audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. As of Tuesday afternoon ET, the documentary shows a single-digit Tomatometer alongside a near-perfect verified audience score, a split that has fueled debate about who the film is for—and how much a politically charged release can polarize reviews.

That contrast has also turned the film into a kind of Rorschach test: for some viewers it’s a “must-see” curiosity, while for many critics it’s been framed as thin on new information and heavy on image-making.

Box office: strong U.S. start, weak abroad

In the U.S. and Canada, the documentary opened at about $7 million, which is a standout figure for the category in recent years. But the financial question is scale: recent coverage has pegged overall spending around $75 million when acquisition and marketing are combined, setting a breakeven bar that is unusually high for a documentary-style release.

Outside North America, early results look far softer. In the UK, the film debuted low on the charts with a modest total spread across a very wide release footprint, which pulled down its per-theater average. In Australia, the opening weekend also came in with a low per-screen figure and a ranking outside the top tier.

Snapshot (approx., as of Tuesday afternoon ET)

A John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts premiere adds political heat

The rollout has included a high-profile Washington premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which helped set the tone: this isn’t just a film release, it’s a cultural and political event. That framing has likely contributed to the unusually intense split between critical response and audience enthusiasm.

“Melania movie near me”: where it’s playing and how wide the release is

For people searching “melania movie near me,” the key detail is that this is not a limited art-house rollout. The documentary has been booked broadly across mainstream multiplexes and major ticketing services, with showtimes varying sharply by region and by daypart—some locations adding multiple screenings, others keeping it to one or two.

Because demand appears uneven, the practical advice is simple: check local listings for seat maps and times rather than assuming sold-out crowds or empty rooms. Both have been true in different markets.

Who is Melania Trump, and why comparisons to Michelle Obama keep surfacing

A recurring side-question has been “where is Melania Trump from?” She was born in Novo Mesto in what was then Yugoslavia (now Slovenia) and grew up in Sevnica.

Comparisons to Michelle Obama often point to tone and distribution rather than direct box-office competition. Becoming was built primarily as a streaming documentary on Netflix, which changes what “success” looks like—hours watched and subscriber appeal versus ticket sales and per-theater averages.

What to watch next: staying power, not headlines

The next indicator is simple: weekend-to-weekend holds. A documentary can outperform expectations early and still fade quickly if interest is front-loaded and reviews keep potential viewers away. Upcoming major events on the calendar can also crowd the marketplace, limiting screen availability and making it harder to maintain momentum.

For now, the story is a rare combination: a widely released documentary with intense polarization, headline-grabbing review gaps, and box office results that look dramatically different depending on which market you measure.

Sources consulted: Rotten Tomatoes; Business Insider; The Guardian; Encyclopaedia Britannica