Jeff Bezos Insists He Had Nothing to Do With Melania Doc

"I had nothing to do with that. By the way, it appears it was a good business decision. You know, it did very well in theaters, it has done very well on streaming, people are very curious about Melania. So even though I had to do nothing with it, you know, it appears that the Amazon team made a very wise business decision, Bezos told Sorkin."

"There's a view among critics that say that part of what you have done or are doing is trying to placate the president with either the sort of shift in the tone of what's happening at [The Washington Post] or even some of the things at Amazon, the decision to make the documentary around Melania, for example."

"Yes, the Melania thing is a falsehood that will not die. So, you know, I see it reported all the time that somehow I was involved in this, and I know we did this at this Mar-a-Lago dinner SORKIN: Everybody thinks that you went to Mar-a-Lago and BEZOS: It's not true. We have denied it. Melania's office has denied it, it's not true."

"The film's reported $40 million production budget (plus another $35 million in marketing) had many scratching their heads as documentaries rarely come attached with such high budgets. The movie grossed just over $16 million worldwide in theaters and is now streaming on Amazon's Prime service. Though Melania came nowhere near covering its budget, it did enjoy the biggest opening for a non-music documentary in a decade."

Jeff Bezos praised Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary as a good business decision, citing strong theater performance and streaming interest. He denied any involvement in the project and rejected claims that it was created to placate President Donald Trump. Critics questioned the reported $40 million production budget and additional $35 million marketing spend, noting that documentaries rarely carry such high costs. The film grossed just over $16 million worldwide in theaters and later became available on Amazon Prime. Despite not recouping its reported budget through theatrical revenue, it achieved the biggest opening for a non-music documentary in a decade.

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