Like Newsmax, the Media Research Center did what it could to fawn over the recently released documentary about Melania Trump. Tim Graham wrote in a Feb. 1 post:
Make a shocked face! Trump fans eagerly turned out and loved the new Melania documentary – and the very liberal movie-critic mob couldn’t stand it. Melania has a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning only 6% of critics liked the film. It also has a 6 out of 100 score on Metacritic, but that summarizes the entire content of movie reviews, not just a worth-watching verdict.
The liberal media have been actively disparaging the movie before it even came out, trying to predict it would bomb. It has not! Early projections are that it will make $8.1 million at the box office in its opening weekend, much more than the first estimates of $3-5 million.
The New York Times was surely sore to admit that this number suggested “the best start for a documentary (excluding concert films) in 14 years.” It would come in #3 in box office for the weekend, more than the new Jason Statham action flick, Shelter.
The Hollywood Reporter sounded crestfallen: “No one saw that coming, with many suggesting Melania was a bomb before it even opened based on empty, or nearly empty, seat maps in cinemas across the country.” That was wishful thinking, based on the expected turnout in Democrat cities.
Graham added:
Critics like Xan Brooks of the socialist newspaper The Guardian could only pout: “Two hours of Melania feels like pure, endless hell.” Hollywood In Toto found one angry movie critic gave a negative review while admitting he would never watch it!
Hmmm, that sounds a lot like how MRC writers trashed a Ronald Regan film they couldn’t be bothered to actually see, or how Graham himself attacked a film he didn’t see — or how another MRC writer actually defended bashing a film she hadn’t seen.
Clay Waters followed with a Feb. 3 post:
You might not want to rely on investment advice from the weekly financial and investment magazine Barron’s, judging by its bad market call regarding the expected opening week take of the Melania Trump documentary, which opened on Friday: “The Melania Movie Looks Like a Box-Office Flop. What It Means for Amazon.”
Reporter George Glover tried to project what Melania‘s expected box office failure might mean for Amazon.com, which paid to distribute and market the doc from director Brett Ratner. But the purported failure chain fell apart when Melania’s opening week busted box-office expectations (which ranged from $3-$5 million) by raking in an estimated $8.1 million, a huge opening for a non-concert documentary, attracting older conservative women despite wicked reviews.
[…]One mistake by Barron’s: Assuming that low attendance figures from the blue-city bubble could be reliably extrapolated nationwide.
Neither Graham nor Waters mentioned the fact that in the following month, the film generated only about $8 million for a total of $16 million — a ultimeately sad showing particularly given its reported $75 million cost.