“Melania,” the new documentary about the first lady, scheduled to open worldwide on Friday, has been pulled from theaters in South Africa after the film’s local distributor said on Wednesday that it would no longer release it.
“Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in territory,” said Thobashan Govindarajulu, the head of sales and marketing for the distributor, Filmfinity.
Mr. Govindarajulu declined to say what recent developments had led to the decision, but said that the company was not pressured or asked to pull the film. “That was our decision,” he said. The decision was first reported by the South African outlet News24.
The promotion of the film about Melania Trump has been as polarizing as her husband, President Trump, who has touted the movie as a “must watch.” But theaters have reported thin advanced ticket sales, despite Amazon investing $40 million for the rights to the film and spending tens of millions more on marketing, which industry analysts saw as a big risk.
The film, which follows Ms. Trump in the weeks before her husband’s second inauguration, has also drawn criticism because of its director, Brett Ratner. The documentary is Mr. Ratner’s first Hollywood film since he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, during the height of the #MeToo movement.
The decision to pull the film in South Africa comes at a time of deep hostility between the South African government and Mr. Trump. The president has been extremely critical of South Africa since the start of his second term, spreading false allegations that the country’s white minority is facing a genocide.
Many South Africans have grown angry with what they see as Mr. Trump’s promotion of misinformation about their country, and with the punishing tariffs he has introduced.
It is unclear whether icy relations between South Africa and the United States, low ticket sales, or something else led to the decision by Filmfinity to cancel the film’s release. But the choice came abruptly.
Mark Sardi, the chief executive of Ster-Kinekor, one of South Africa’s major movie theater chains, shared a message from Filmfinity this week indicating that “Melania” had complied with all local regulations and would be released. In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Sardi said he did not know why the distributor had pulled the film.
“Our basic position would be we’re not in the business of censorship,” he said. “I expect the decision would have been a commercial one balanced with a whole lot of current issues.”
A spokeswoman for South Africa’s content regulator, the Film and Publications Board, said on Wednesday that the board was not aware that the film had been pulled.
Zimasa Matiwane contributed reporting.
John Eligon is the Johannesburg bureau chief for The Times, covering a wide range of events and trends that influence and shape the lives of ordinary people across southern Africa.
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