The Melania Trump movie is out… and it’s already managed to score itself one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes ratings of all time.
Simply titled Melania, the Brett Ratner-produced and directed documentary follows the First Lady in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration in January 2025.
Melania was released on January 30, 2026, in the UK following a string of limp ticket sales across the globe.
Projections for the film have suggested that it could earn as little as $1million (£725,000) during its opening weekend – a potentially staggering loss for Amazon, which paid $40m (£29m) to license the film and produce a follow-up docuseries.
All in all, a poor showing for what has become the highest price ever paid for a documentary.
Poor ticket sales aren’t all the film has to contend with, either. Critical opinion has made it one of the most reviled films in recent history.
Melania currently wallows in a miserable 7% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with critics describing it as ‘dull’ and ‘terrible.’
Variety called it ‘a shameless infomercial,’ while The Guardian described it as ‘pure, endless hell.’
Elsewhere, the Irish Times branded it a ‘triumph of the dull,’ as the Daily Express described its action as ‘mostly dull behind-the-scenes movements.’
Ouch.
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Commenting for Metro, writer Kimberley Bond described her own experience of viewing the film in a near-empty UK cinema.
‘And take it from someone who suffered through it – this film is bad,’ Bond penned.
‘Vacuous, empty, and devoid of any emotional heft,’ she continued, dubbing the film a ‘beige vanity exercise.’
As of January 2026, the film’s bottom-of-the-barrel-scraping score has it sharing space with the infamously offensive Music, which stars Kate Hudson and singer Sia.
This also lands Melania in even worse territory than hated comic book adaptations Catwoman (8%), Elektra (11%), and the Dumb and Dumber prequel When Harry Met Lloyd (10%).
Again, we say ouch.
Still, the sole positive commentary (excluding President Trump’s social post declaring it a ‘MUST WATCH’) from London Evening Standard found something good to say, describing the film as ‘rather fascinating’ in their otherwise lukewarm three-star review.
It also boasts an altogether more positive (if slightly suspect) Popcornmeter score from wider audiences, contributing to a near-perfect rating of 99%.
‘Our theatre was sold out and erupted in applause and cheers at the end of the show,’ wrote the user Jenn, while Monique described it as a form of ‘classical art.’
Helmed by X-Men: The Last Stand and Rush Hour 3 filmmaker Ratner, much of the film’s on-set controversy surrounded its director rather than its subject.
Ratner became subject to a string of misconduct allegations in 2017 when six women came forward with complaints against him – all of which he denied.
‘She was totally nice,’ one member of the crew told Rolling Stone of the eponymous Melania. ‘She was the opposite of Brett Ratner.’
‘I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this,’ said another production member. ‘But Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project.’
Criticism of the director included his alleged propensity for discarding rubbish all over the film’s set while acting rude and dismissive to crew members.
Said one staffer: ‘He did actually chew a piece of gum and throw it in a coffee cup on my cart, [but] didn’t acknowledge my existence for even one nanosecond.’
Another added: ‘Unfortunately, if it does flop, I would really feel great about it.’
Melania is out in UK cinemas now.
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