The Melania gossip running rife in Hollywood... as insiders reveal what Trump family is plotting next
If a collective groan was audible in Hollywood on Monday it wasn't from studio executives reaching for the Tylenol and black coffee after the previous night's Grammys celebrations.
No. Phones lit up across Tinseltown as dumbfounded studio heads bemoaned the fact that Amazon MGM Studio's documentary, MELANIA, had done what was, to the liberals of La La Land, unthinkable.
Forget the predictable drubbing the documentary about the First Lady's life in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump's second inauguration in January 2025, received from the critics.
Variety may have called it 'a piece of state-sanctioned propaganda out of 1960s Communist China.' Hollywood Reporter may have carped, 'To say that Melania is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies.'
But all that really mattered were the numbers.
'Experts' had confidently predicted that MELANIA would only gross between $1 million and $2 million. Instead, the movie took $7 million at the box office, making it the most successful documentary (outside of concert films) in 14 years. It ranked third in last weekend's box office releases and beat action hero Jason Statham's latest flick, Shelter, which opened to a measly $5 million.
An executive at Disney told me: 'Everyone was so convinced MELANIA would flop we were at the point where people were putting major bets on in Vegas that it would gross less than a million.
'Those people have ended up with egg on their faces. Yet again Hollywood has underestimated the power of the conservative vote and the personal popularity of the first lady.
An executive at Disney said: 'Everyone was so convinced MELANIA would flop we were at the point where people were putting major bets on it in Vegas'
'She's an inspiration to so many people. I mean, look, the hot topic at the moment is immigration and here you have an immigrant from Slovenia who came to the States with nothing, married a billionaire who became president not once but twice and who has conducted herself with grace under fire.
'People are fascinated by her whether they like her or not and woke Hollywood has gotten it wrong - yet again.'
Indeed, last Friday as the film was released in theaters, I held several conversations with executives at various studios and agencies around LA, a city I've lived in and written about for the past 25 years.
Almost to a man and woman I was told MELANIA would flop, that the ICE protests in Minneapolis would be 'the final nail in the coffin' of any hope of box office success and that people, 'would rather go and watch Jason Statham blow up things than see a privileged woman discuss things like her wardrobe.'
Well, Melania and the studio that backed her sure got the last laugh. Jeff Bezos bet heavily on Melania's star-wattage, with the First Lady receiving a reported $28 million of the $40 million Amazon put down on the project. The studio spent another $35 million on marketing.
The gamble worked. MELANIA had extraordinary pulling power with women over 55 and did sell-out business in Florida (Tampa, Orlando and West Palm Beach), Texas (cinemas in Dallas and Houston reported people cheering and giving it a standing ovation) and Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Now, the Daily Mail can reveal, the success of MELANIA means Amazon will air a three-part documentary which delves 'in depth' into the First Lady's life, 'sooner rather than later,' while wheels have already been set in motion for documentaries focused on other prominent Trump family members including Don Jr and Eric and his wife Lara.
There are also rumors that MELANIA director Brett Ratner is working on the 'ultimate' behind-the-scenes movie about the president himself. 'Hollywood has always lived in a liberal bubble,' my Amazon source told me last night.
'They think everyone thinks the way they do in LA. But Donald Trump didn't get elected by accident. There are vast swathes of America that hold conservative values and there is an audience for movies about subjects that conservatives, particularly women, cherish.'
Jeff Bezos bet heavily on Melania's star-wattage, with the First Lady receiving a reported $28 million of the $40 million Amazon put down on the project
The source continued: 'If you sat in any restaurant in Hollywood in the past few weeks you had people laughing about the Melania movie.
'I work for Amazon and I had one guy come up to me when I was having lunch with my family and say: "Shame on you!"
'There were people who worked on the Melania film who asked for their names to be left off the final credits. Well, this is probably the most successful film most of them have ever worked on, so they might be reconsidering that decision now.'
In the weeks leading up to the release of MELANIA the negative drumbeat was constant.
There were endless stories in the liberal media about how Ratner, a man whose movies like the Rush Hour films, have generated more than $9.3 billion globally got 'canceled' in 2017. Back then, at the height of the #MeToo movement, the LA Times wrote a story in which six women accused Ratner of sexual misconduct.
Ratner vehemently and 'categorically' denied the claims and no criminal charges were ever brought against him.
When an image emerged of him last week in the recently released Epstein Files - sitting on a sofa next to a blonde alongside Epstein and another woman – Ratner again found himself on the end of blistering negative headlines.
He defended himself on Piers Morgan's YouTube show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, on Monday saying he had been invited to meet Epstein by his then fiancée (the woman sitting next to him). He went on to state that he had never seen the convicted pedophile before or after that encounter.
Now friends of Ratner say he feels 'vindicated' by the success of MELANIA.
One told me: 'Brett got canceled yet was never charged with anything; never had his day in court. When Brett was approached to direct the Melania documentary (by the first lady's senior advisor Marc Beckman) he jumped at the chance. He moved into a villa at Mar-a-Lago and kept telling everyone to come down.
'He's never been happier. He has full access. No one can talk about it yet but there are other projects in the pipeline that will knock your socks off.'
The Daily Mail has learned Ratner is in the final stages of putting the finishing touches to a script and shooting schedule for Rush Hour 4, a film President Trump personally asked Paramount Pictures boss David Ellison to greenlight.
'If you sat in any restaurant in Hollywood in the past few weeks you had people laughing about the Melania movie,' a source said
I was told MELANIA would flop and that the ICE protests in Minneapolis would be 'the final nail in the coffin' of any hope of box office success
Indeed, filmmakers determined to continue to focus on the achingly woke, may be in for a rude awakening. Because the truth, according to my Amazon source, is 'it always comes down to money.'
'We have the James Bond franchise (it was sold to Amazon in a $1 billion deal last year). The script is nearly finished, and I can tell you it's going back to the origins of Bond,' they said. 'You have Bond girls, he's a womanizer, there's sex, fast cars, cool gadgets.
'People don't want a woke Bond. We're going back to basics. This is nothing about politics. It's about what people what to see in cinemas.'
As for the critics, the source said: 'The Trump White House doesn't care about the noise.
'Amazon doesn't care. This documentary has been a resounding success by any measure and once it's available on Prime Video it will continue to rack up the numbers.
'The president and the first lady have not read the reviews. They are thrilled with the film.
'Woke Hollywood won't admit it and can't admit it, but in Orange County (a conservative bastion south of LA) the movie is doing really well.'
MELANIA will air on Amazon later this month, until then it is expected to 'steadily carry on putting on the numbers.' 'This is a film which will keep adding viewing figures,' a person connected with the movie told me.
'There's a huge amount of curiosity, even from people who wouldn't usually go to any sort of Trump-related movie. That's the power of it.
'People are fascinated by Melania Trump. She's enigmatic. Love her or hate her people - especially women - are fascinated by her. That is what the men in Hollywood have underestimated. Underestimate the power of women at your peril.'
