Brett Ratner is back in the spotlight after posting about his new documentary on First Lady Melania Trump. The post comes as Ratner’s film, Melania: 20 Days to History, continues to generate headlines. The documentary follows Donald Trump‘s wife in the weeks leading up to the January 2025 inauguration.
Brett Ratner teases new chapters of Melania documentary
Brett Ratner recently took to Instagram to share that his newest film is moving forward with a second installment. The caption ran over an image of him whispering to the president at a formal gathering.
“I’m explaining to [Donald Trump] that even I can’t take credit for making Melania look that good! Here we go again…. The saga continues,” it read. “Can’t wait to share with everyone around the world the next two chapters of Melania: The Docuseries.”
The documentary generated plenty of buzz during production and after its release earlier this year. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, it was an expensive bet for Amazon. Amazon MGM Studios spent $40 million to acquire the rights and reportedly put another $35 million into marketing. Despite that, the film only brought in around $16.3 million during its five-week theatrical run.
The shortfall seems bad, but there’s reasoning behind it. Melania is currently the top-grossing documentary of 2026 by a large margin. Pulling in $16 million is rare for a non-fiction film that actually gets a theatrical release.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made that case himself back in May, noting that the film “did very well in theaters” and has “done very well on streaming,” making it a “very wise business decision.” Detractors, however, don’t view the losses as a misstep.
Jimmy Kimmel described it as a “$75 million bribe” to get on Donald Trump’s good side. Senator Elizabeth Warren agreed, calling it blatant bribery and arguing that the sum may put Amazon at risk under federal anti-bribery law, as per Variety.
Originally reported by Sibanee Gogoi on Mandatory.
This story originally appeared on Realitytea
