Michelle Obama is proving her star power is untouchable, even years after the debut of her documentary “Becoming.”
As the new “Melania” film arrived in theaters last weekend, people didn’t exactly rush to buy tickets, instead, they seemingly decided to rewatch Michelle. According to the latest streaming data, Obama’s 2020 Netflix documentary saw a massive 13,300 percent spike in viewership. Between January 30 and February 1, the film reached 47.5 million minutes of watch time, a wild jump from the 354,000 minutes it saw just one week prior. The sudden resurgence pushed the former First Lady’s project back into the spotlight, making it clear which story the public is actually interested in revisitng.
While Michelle’s numbers were skyrocketing on Netflix, the situation at the movie theaters for Melania Trump was looking a lot more desperate. Despite Amazon MGM Studios dropping millions on a marketing, including ads on the Las Vegas Sphere, the actual turnout was reportedly embarrassing.
Things got so bad in some cities that a viral Craigslist ad surfaced in the Boston area, offering people $50 in cash plus a free ticket just to sit through the movie. The ad explicitly stated that viewers had to remain in their seats for the entire film, a move many are calling a “paid audience” tactic to keep the screenings from looking completely empty.
Even with the $7 million domestic box office opening, critics are pointing out that the numbers don’t tell the whole story when people are being paid to show up. Melania,” directed by Brett Ratner, follows the First Lady through the 20 days leading up to the 2025 inauguration, but it seems the niche audience of women over 55 wasn’t enough to fill the rooms naturally.
Melania took to X to thank her “friends, family, and cultural iconoclasts” for their support at the White House premiere, but the real-world data suggests a different vibe. While one project had to resort to Craigslist handouts to keep people in seats, Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” took over the internet simply because people chose to press play.
