Name it counter-programming. As Amazon Prime’s Melania documentary was launched in theaters on Jan. 30, former First Girl Michelle Obama‘s Changing into doc is surging to the highest 10 in Netflix views.
Changing into was launched in 2020. It covers Obama’s 34-city guide tour after the discharge of her best-selling memoir of the identical title. Changing into has bought over 15 million copies worldwide, making it one of many top-selling memoirs of all time.
RELATED CONTENT: Michelle Obama Is Again With A New Guide—And This One’s All About Her Iconic Type
On Jan. 23, Obama’s documentary was getting over 2,000 views, a good quantity for a six-year-old launch. Every week later, Changing into surged to greater than 300,000 views. It spent every week within the High 10 when it was launched, producing 1.5 million views from 2023 to 2025.
“The resurgence of curiosity in Changing into is a main instance of audiences discovering, or re-discovering, catalog content material attributable to bigger conversations within the zeitgeist,” Luminate comms director Jimmy Harney mentioned in an announcement, per The Hill. Luminate offers knowledge for the movie, TV, and music trade.
Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for the Melania doc, directed by disgraced movie director Brett Ratner. Ratner, who directed the Rush Hour sequence and X-Males: The Final Stand amongst different high-profile tasks, hasn’t directed a movie since 2017, when he was accused of sexual harassment by six ladies, together with actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Hentsridge.
The surge in Changing into views has been inspired throughout social media platforms as a option to assist Obama and spotlight the distinction between the present actuality and the Obama administration. Together with the $40 million price range for the doc itself, Amazon Prime allotted one other $30 million for advertising, together with a promo on the Sphere in Las Vegas.
To this point, Melania, which covers the 20 days main as much as Trump’s second inauguration, has made $7 million. Per Deadline, it’s the highest-earning opening weekend for a non-fiction movie within the final decade, following After Demise, which earned $5 milion again in 2023.
Per field workplace statistics, 70% of Melania viewers have been ladies, and 72% of them have been 70 and over. The doc’s premiere was held on the Trump Kennedy Heart on Jan. 29. Melania is anticipated to be launched on Prime Video at a later date.
Hold scrolling to see social media’s response to the surge.
