{"id":576123,"date":"2026-02-08T22:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/576123\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T22:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:39:10","slug":"melania-falls-steeply-at-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/576123\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Melania’ falls steeply at the box office"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Hollywood largely ceded attention to football over a slow box-office weekend, with the survival thriller \u201cSend Help\u201d repeating as No. 1 in ticket sales and the Melania Trump documentary \u201cMelania\u201d<\/a> falling sharply in its second weekend. <\/p>\n

Super Bowl weekend<\/a> is typically one of the lowest attended moviegoing times of the year. It was the second slowest weekend last year and in 2024 it ranked dead last for moviegoing. <\/p>\n

Studios instead put their focus on advertising movies for the massive television audience. Among the trailers expected to hit the NFL broadcast Sunday were The Walt Disney Co.’s \u201cMandalorian and Grogu,\u201d Lionsgate\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic, \u201cMichael\u201d and Universal Pictures\u2019 \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie.\u201d <\/p>\n

In North American theaters, the Disney.-20th Century Studios release \u201cSend Help,\u201d directed by Sam Raimi, lead all films with $10 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. With $53.7 million globally thus far, the R-rated survival thriller has proved a solid midbudget success. Disney meanwhile watched its remarkably long-lasting \u201cZootopia 2″<\/a> cross $1.8 billion worldwide in its 11th week of release. <\/p>\n

\u201cMelania,\u201d from Amazon MGM, added 300 theaters in its second weekend but dropped steeply with to $2.4 million in ticket sales, down 67% from its much-discussed debut.<\/a> The rapid downturn means the Brett Ratner-directed documentary is likely heading toward flop territory given its high price tag. Amazon MGM paid $40 million for film rights, plus some $35 million to market it. <\/p>\n

The North American total for \u201cMelania\u201d stands at $13.4 million. Amazon MGM has not released international figures, though they\u2019re expected to be paltry. <\/p>\n

Kevin Wilson, head of domestic distribution for the studio, said the movie\u2019s box-office performance \u201cis a critical first moment that validates our wholistic distribution strategy, building awareness, engagement, and provides momentum ahead of the film\u2019s eventual debut on Prime Video.\u201d <\/p>\n

The film\u2019s ticket sales \u2014 which would be very good for a less expensive documentary \u2014 were a talking point throughout the week. Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel hammered the movie\u2019s sales. Kimmel called them a \u201crigged outcome.\u201d Elsewhere in theaters, the Italy-set Kevin James romantic comedy \u201cSolo Mio\u201d debuted with a robust $7.2 million, a major win for Angel Studios, best known for its faith-based releases. \u201cStray Kids: The Dominate Experience,\u201d a K-pop concert film released by Bleecker Street, launched with $5.6 million, and an additional $13.2 million overseas. The Luc Besson-directed Bram Stoker adaptation \u201cDracula\u201d<\/a> opened with $4.5 million, a studio-best debut for the indie distributor Vertical. <\/p>\n

One of the most unusual releases in theaters, however, remains the low-budget indie \u201cIron Lung.\u201d The YouTube filmmaker Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, self-financed and self-distributed the R-rated video game adaptation, along with writing, directing and starring in it. In its second weekend, \u201cIron Lung\u201d collected $6.2 million, bringing its two-week total to $31.2 million. It cost $3 million to make. <\/p>\n

Top 10 movies by domestic box office<\/p>\n

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cSend Help,\u201d $10 million. <\/p>\n

2. \u201cSolo Mio,\u201d $7.2 million. <\/p>\n

3. \u201cIron Lung,\u201d $6 million. <\/p>\n

4. \u201cStray Kids: The Dominate Experience,\u201d $5.6 million. <\/p>\n

5. \u201cDracula,\u201d $4.5 million. <\/p>\n

6. \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d $4 million. <\/p>\n

7. \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d $3.5 million. <\/p>\n

8. \u201cThe Strangers: Chapter 3,\u201d $3.5 million. <\/p>\n

9. \u201cShelter,\u201d $2.4 million. <\/p>\n

10. \u201cMelania,\u201d $2.4 million. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Hollywood largely ceded attention to football over a slow box-office weekend, with the survival…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":576124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[191830,64,276,434,171,57,11171,247221,250068,108590,250069,247009,13754,1018,53,32759,235115,13895,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-576123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-brett-ratner","tag-business","tag-california","tag-documentaries","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-kevin-james","tag-kevin-wilson","tag-luc-besson","tag-mario-galaxy","tag-mark-fischbach","tag-melania-trump","tag-michael-jackson","tag-movies","tag-sam-raimi","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116037416529740541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}