Why Is The Melania Trump Documentary In Trouble?

The

documentary Melania, produced by Amazon MGM Studios and co-produced by Melania Trump, follows the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration and offers a behind-the-scenes look at her return to the White House. Apart from making the headlines for its box office numbers and the whopping budget, the film has been making headlines for landing in controversy too. And recently the film seems to have landed in yet another trouble. Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has requested the makers of Melania to remove a segment of music from his 2017 released film Phantom Thread.

Why is Melania Trump documentary in trouble?

According to a recent report, Phantom Thread director Paul Thomas Anderson and Radiohead musician Jonny Greenwood have asked the makers to remove a segment of music from the 2017 film that appears in the documentary Melania. Greenwood composed the score for Phantom Thread.

In a statement obtained by Variety through Greenwood’s representative, the pair said they were not consulted about the use of the music. The statement said that a piece of music from Phantom Thread had been used in the Melania documentary without proper consultation. It noted that although Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright to the score, Universal failed to consult him on the third-party use, which amounted to a breach of his composer agreement. As a result, Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson requested that the music be removed from the documentary.Over the past 25 years, Greenwood has been active as a film composer, contributing to the scores of 12 films, including There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, Liquorice Pizza and the Golden Globes award winner and Oscar nominee - One Battle After Another, among others.

How much did the Brett Ratner documentary Melania collect at box office?

The Brett Ratner-directed documentary, which presents itself as an intimate portrait of the First Lady but has been described as offering little new insight, has reportedly earned $13.35 million at the domestic box office after two weekends. While modest by mainstream standards, the figure is notable for a documentary that is not focused on nature or music.

How much did Amazon pay to acquire rights to Melania?

However, the film’s financial stakes extend far beyond its box office performance. Amazon MGM reportedly paid $40 million to acquire Melania along with a companion docu-series for streaming, followed by an additional $35 million on theatrical marketing. Such spending is virtually unheard of for documentaries, which rarely generate major box office returns.The studio’s heavy investment has led to speculation within the industry about Amazon MGM’s broader motivations behind the release. With exhibitors retaining roughly half of ticket sales, recovering the cost of Melania theatrically seems tough.

More about Melania

Melania has been released in approximately 1,600 theatres worldwide and will later be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. A follow-up docuseries centred on the first lady’s initiatives is also said to be in development.