The nationwide release of the Melania Trump vanity documentary has reminded audiences that they could be watching a movie about a first lady who actually lived in the White House.
Viewership of Netflix’s film about Michelle Obama, Becoming, surged over the weekend, a period that coincided with the release of the widely panned documentary Melania.
The film about the wife of former President Barack Obama, Donald Trump’s first White House predecessor, saw an increase of roughly 13,300 percent in total minutes viewed compared to the previous weekend. From Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, Becoming racked up 47.5 million viewing minutes, according to The Hollywood Reporter, citing data from Luminate.
As noted by Deadline, that spike translates to more than 480,000 total streams for Becoming, a film that came out in 2020. On a typical day in January, the documentary, based in part on Michelle Obama’s hugely successful 2018 memoir of the same name, would be lucky to attract a few hundred views on Netflix.
“The resurgence of interest in Becoming is a prime example of audiences discovering, or re-discovering, catalog content due to larger conversations in the zeitgeist,” Luminate communications director Jimmy Harney said in a statement, via The Hill.
The renewed interest in Becoming coincided with the worldwide release last Friday of Melania, to brutal reviews. Among them was a scathing take from Kevin Fallon, editor-at-large of the Daily Beast’s Obsessed, who called the film an “abomination” and “drivel.”
The documentary, which follows the first lady during the 20 days leading up to Trump’s second inauguration last January, cost Amazon $75 million to produce and promote. It grossed around $7 million at the box office over the weekend, although that figure was disputed.
Melania Trump was so desperate to promote the film that she gave it an awkward plug on Wednesday while speaking to freed Israeli-American hostages at the White House.
The first lady told reporters about meeting Aviva Siegel—who was captured by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks—in New York last January, when Siegel was seeking help to secure the release of her husband, Keith Siegel.
“It was captured on camera and available to see in my new film, Melania,” Trump said. “It was very emotional.”
When pressed on whether it was appropriate to reference her box-office flop at an official White House event, Melania insisted: “It is not a promotion.”
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