Author and biographer Michael Wolff claimed that President Donald Trump has been “vaguely irritated” with his wife’s new biographical film “Melania” – which released in theaters Friday to abysmal reviews and near-empty screenings – and revealed why he thinks that's true to The Daily Beast, the outlet reported Sunday.
“Everybody in the family is, at some point, owed. They all believe he has to deliver. And now this is very clearly Melania’s turn. She gets the money. She gets the attention,” Wolff said. “He believes that his family is basically a family of moochers: ‘whatever you have comes to you because of me.’”
Despite several near-empty screenings, “Melania” opened to $8 million, the “best numbers in a decade for a documentary,” The Hollywood Reporter reported Saturday. However, it remains a question as to whether the film will recoup the $40 million Amazon MGM Studios paid for the film’s licensing rights, and the additional $35 million it spent in marketing, making the film the most expensive documentary in history.
Joanna Coles, The Daily Beast’s chief creative and content officer, spoke with Wolff about the “Melania” film, and argued that the documentary carried with it a signal to viewers from Melania Trump.
“There’s absolutely no interaction with Donald Trump at all,” Coles said. “She is signaling to us, the viewer, that they are not in the same bedroom – and she doesn’t want us to think they are.”
Despite Trump’s alleged irritation with the film, he had aggressively promoted it on social media, though has been criticized over the director of the film, Brett Ratner. The director of the popular “Rush Hour” films, Ratner stepped away from Hollywood in 2018 after being accused of rape and sexual midconduct.