Melania Film FLOP! UK & Italy Box Office Numbers SHOCK Hollywood!

Well, folks, it looks like Amazon's big gamble on "Melania," the documentary about the former First Lady, hasn't exactly paid off – at least not overseas. Initial box office numbers are in, and they paint a pretty grim picture for the big-budget film. We're talking 'underwhelming' levels of attendance, a real head-scratcher considering the reported investment.

Melania Film FLOP! UK & Italy Box Office Numbers S...

Specifically, in the UK, "Melania" limped into 29th place, scraping together a paltry £32,974 (that's about $44,960 in real money) across a whopping 155 cinemas. Do the math, and that's a dismal £212 per screen. Now, I've seen documentaries draw bigger crowds at local film festivals. This puts it ninth among new releases, which, frankly, is nothing to write home about when you're talking about a film backed by Amazon's deep pockets.

The sheer number of screens "Melania" was showing on in the UK is actually pretty high for a documentary. That makes this sub-$50,000 weekend look even worse. Remember, we’re reportedly talking about a $40 million licensing fee and a $35 million marketing blitz! Someone in Amazon's film division is probably having a very bad week right now. You'd think the title alone would draw some interest, but maybe audiences are just suffering from Trump fatigue, or maybe the film just isn't very good. I haven’t seen it myself, so I can't comment on the quality, but the numbers speak volumes.

It's not just the UK, either. Over in Italy, a country that, let's be honest, has had its own flirtations with Trumpism, the film fared even worse. A measly €6,520 (around $7,696) across 94 cinemas. That works out to a truly embarrassing €69 per screen. Ranked 38th overall? Ouch. Amazon hasn't released comprehensive international data, but these numbers suggest the film is struggling to find an audience beyond a niche group, if even that.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, Chloe Zhao's "Hamnet" is still reigning supreme, topping the charts in its fourth week. Even a low-budget horror flick by Markiplier, called "Iron Lung", managed to pull in numbers almost equal to the new Jason Statham action movie. That really puts "Melania’s" poor performance into perspective. It shows that even without the gigantic marketing budget, the right project can find an audience. For “Melania” though, it looks like the audience just wasn’t there.