Amazon reportedly put its staff in a tough position over its expensive documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, with the New York Times reporting workers were threatened with termination if they refused to work on the film for political reasons.
Sources within Amazon MGM Studios spoke with the Times about the contentious project, claiming that there were major concerns among studio staff and crew members over the political implications of the company's acquisition and release of the film. These concerns were met with a firm response from the company's top brass.
"Some employees in Amazon’s entertainment division had similar concerns, according to three sources with knowledge of discussions inside Amazon," the report explained. "They were told that the project was mandated by the company’s leadership and that employees could not opt out of working on the film for political reasons."
The circumstances surrounding Amazon's release of the documentary have led to persistent accusations that it is trying to curry favor with President Donald Trump's administration. The company acquired the rights to release the film after the president won reelection in 2024, and did so for $40 million, an outlandishly high amount compared to other successful documentaries. That winning bid from Amazon was more than double the second-place bid of $14 million from Disney.
The expenditure from Jeff Bezos's e-commerce giant only grew from there, as $35 million was spent to promote the project for a worldwide theatrical release. For comparison, the Times' report highlighted the "robust" production and release for CNN Films' RBG, a documentary about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That film cost only $1 million to produce and went on to make $14 million.
Given that films need to make roughly double their costs to break even theatrically, Amazon's Melania needs to make $150 million worldwide, a feat matched by only three documentaries in history. One of those films, Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets, has only grossed so much because it is an IMAX nature documentary that has played at a National Geographic visitor center since 1984.
The film's opening weekend projections currently sit at just $1-5 million.
“This has to be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing,” Ted Hope, an Amazon Studios employee from 2015 to 2020 credited as "instrumental" in building up the film division, told the Times. “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe? How can that not be the case?”