Melania Doc Premieres in D.C. as Director Brett Ratner Says $75 Million Price Tag Wasnt About Corruption

“Humanitarian.” “Brilliant.” “Compassionate.” “Intelligent.” Just some of the words guests at the Kennedy Center premiere for Melania, the Amazon MGM Studios documentary about First Lady Melania Trump in the days before the 2025 presidential inauguration, used in their overly effusive praise for the subject of the film. “Unprecedented” was another word that came up specifically to describe the doc — which reportedly was bought for $40 million and given a marketing budget of $35 million — at Thursday’s gala screening.

“I’ve been to a number of performances at the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never seen the whole center branded,” noted one red carpet reporter. Indeed, the Kennedy Center (or the Trump-Kennedy Center, as it was referred to on the invite) had the First Lady’s name printed across windows and walls, along with glowing letters across the steps and repeated everywhere. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was the 34-minutes President Donald Trump and the First Lady dedicated to answering questions on the black carpet, from both mainstream and right-wing media outlets. “Nice to see you,” the president greeted reporters on the press line before announcing, “Tonight is about the First Lady.”

Asked about the influence his wife wields on him, the president said, “She’s somebody that I count on. I speak to a lot of people. I listen to some and I don’t listen to others, but she’s very influential.” In terms of the film’s impact on those who were about to see the film, the First Lady told reporters she hoped the film would be inspirational, especially to other women. “Everybody will connect on a certain level,” she told reporters. “Teenagers can go to see it, young women can go to see it, and be inspired that they could have a family and business, as well.”

Much of the focus amongst the press was on the eye-opening deal Amazon struck with Melania Trump and her newly launched production company Muse Films. President Trump told reporters he “wasn’t involved,” while the First Lady said the producers had approached several distributors and “Amazon was the best because they agreed to do theaters all around the world.” The film’s director Brett Ratner — directing his first project since being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment at the height of the #MeToo movement — received far more pointed questions about whether he felt like he was part of an act of corporate corruption.

“That’s ridiculous, but it’s OK, I’ll answer. I can tell you right now, if we were audited and they said, ‘How much was spent on this movie?’, this movie is one of the most expensive movies — documentaries — in the genre ever made,” he said. “It wasn’t about getting rich. I mean, I think the Trumps are wealthy and successful enough. This is about giving me the ability to hire the best crew in the world, to not only score the film with the best composer… I mean, when you see the movie, you’ll go, ‘Oh, we see where the money went now.’ This wasn’t about corruption. Melania only cared about one thing, making a great movie for audiences.”

For Ratner, the project came as a surprise. “I didn’t plan it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It wasn’t something I was pitching. The First Lady and [producer] Marc Beckman asked me to come and consider this and I was so moved by how forthright Melania was and how thoughtful she was. She said, ‘Brett, I want you to do this.’ I said, ‘But there’s great documentary filmmakers.’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, but I want it to be for the big screen. I want it to be a movie that audiences around the world can really enjoy.’ So, I said, ‘OK, well then I’m right for the job.’”

“If it was just a talking-heads documentary, there’s many more great filmmakers that I can suggest to them for, but if you’re going to do a movie for the big screen, for audiences around the world — make it something that’s entertaining as well as informative and hopefully historical, I’m the guy,” he added.

In terms of how he would define success for the project, Ratner told THR, “To me, it’s already a success, just the fact that Amazon has agreed to distribute this theatrically. It’s a different world today. When I was a kid, all I cared about was box office. ‘How much money is this movie going to make?’ And now it’s like I’ve already succeeded. I’ve grown up a little bit.”

Ratner wasn’t the only guest defending the unprecedented price Amazon paid for the doc that opens in 1,500 theaters worldwide on Friday (so far to rather modest ticket sales). South Africa won’t be on the list of countries as the film was abruptly pulled from the schedule on Thursday.

“Amazon is a business and they’re in the business to make money, and I think they will make money on this film,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. “It also has an inestimable value in my view, for its cultural impact. I mean, to have a documentary of a First Lady, a behind-the-scenes portrayal, I think there’s great value to that and I think it transcends dollar figures. I think Amazon’s done a good thing to the culture.”

Johnson, attending with his wife Kelly Lary, hoped viewers would glean what the two of them know from their personal relationship with the Trumps. “She’s one of the most gracious people we know,” he said of the First Lady. “She’s very dignified and poised. She gets attacked all the time politically, but she takes it in stride and she’s, I think, a great model for other women and a great representative for America. So, this will be a great film.” Asked by THR if the timing of the premiere gave him pause — following ICE’s shooting of protestor AlexPretti in Minneapolis and the nationwide outrage that has followed — Johnson brushed it off. “No. This was pre-planned and she can’t account for weather events and madness in Congress. She’s doing her thing, so we applaud it. We’re here to support it and we’re excited to be here,” he said.

Johnson was not the only member of the Trump administration to attend the premiere, with other guests including attendance were Pete Hegseth, Lee Zeldin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “She’s been portrayed as this one-dimensional character, but that’s not who she is,” Kennedy told THR. “She’s been very kind to me and [wife] Cheryl [Hines] since we moved to Washington. Within the administration, she’s been one of the primary motivators and drivers for my agenda for children’s health, for better food. I’ve worked with her a lot on foster care, which is her passion, and I’m excited to learn more about her.”

Kennedy also defended the recent renaming of the building dedicated to his uncle President John F. Kennedy. “This center was launched after my uncle’s death because of his commitment to the arts, to making America a cultural center. President Trump has that same ambition. He’s spending a lot of time thinking about it,” he said. “I have bigger fish to fry. If I can save one kid, it’s better than the name of a building.”

And though a Saturday screening of the documentary at the White House drew criticism, the president did not seem bothered by the events of the past month. Asked how he believed the month of January would affect his legacy, he said, “I think that the legacy is very strong right now. The safest country we’ve had, the strongest military, doing better than we’ve ever done before. I think it’s going to be a great legacy.”