"If you've been watching TV, you've probably seen the ads. "Melania," a big budget movie about first lady Melania Trump, premieres today with a splashy event at the newly-renamed Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It is set to open on 1,500 screens in the U.S. this weekend, a highly unconventional rollout compared to other films of this type. Amazon acquired the film for $40 million and is spending another $35 million on marketing."
""It's just hard to imagine why this number is justified for 'Melania,'" said Jason Spingarn-Koff, a professor of journalism at UC Berkeley. Spingarn-Koff is a former Netflix executive who has worked on hundreds of documentaries. He says the market for documentary films these days is depressed, and even Oscar-nominated documentaries aren't getting shown on as many screens, if any. Questions about how much the first lady is personally making from the film"
Melania premieres at the Trump Kennedy Center and opens on 1,500 U.S. screens this weekend. Amazon paid $40 million and is spending $35 million on marketing, per a source. A UC Berkeley journalism professor and former Netflix executive questioned the price and said the documentary market is depressed, with many documentaries receiving limited theatrical exposure. The White House and Mrs. Trump's office did not answer questions about her personal earnings or whether the budget aimed to curry favor with the president. The film follows Mrs. Trump for 20 days as she prepares to re-enter the White House, and the trailer features dramatic music, glamorous visuals, and an exchange where she calls him 'Mr. President.'
Read at www.npr.org
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