Amazon Removes Melania From Theater Following Marquee Jokes
It turns out that even in Hollywood, some jokes are just a bridge too far for the biggest corporations. Amazon recently made waves when it reportedly pulled the documentary Melania from a small theater in Oregon after the staff got a bit too creative with their advertising.
The theater in question, the Lake Theater and Cafe in Lake Oswego, had been using its outdoor marquee to poke a little fun at the film with lines like Does Melania wear Prada? Find out Friday.
The theater even used a quote from the famous military strategist Sun Tzu to promote the release, writing that to defeat your enemy, you must know them. However, the humor didn’t land well with the executives at Amazon MGM.
According to the theater’s manager, Jordan Perry, they received a call from a studio booker who made it clear that Amazon did not appreciate the way the film was being marketed to the local public.
In response to the studio’s demands, the theater had to cancel all its showings of the documentary prematurely. They didn’t go quietly, though, and updated their marquee once more to tell the community exactly what happened. The new sign read that Amazon called and that their marquee made them mad, before cheekily suggesting that people should show their support at Whole Foods instead.
Before the film was pulled by the studio, the theater was already dealing with a lot of heat from local residents. Many people in the left-leaning Portland suburb were unhappy that the cinema was showing a pro-Trump documentary at all.
Perry explained that he originally booked the movie because he thought it would be exponentially weirder and therefore funny to screen it at an anti-establishment neighborhood cinema during a quiet week for new releases.
As of early February, the documentary Melania has become a massive cultural flashpoint. Directed by Brett Ratner, the film follows the First Lady in the twenty days leading up to the 2025 inauguration.
Despite being hit with incredibly harsh reviews from critics—some calling it gilded trash—it has performed well at the box office. It recently broke records for the strongest opening weekend of any non-music documentary in over a decade, earning around $7 million in its first few days.
Do you think Amazon was right to pull the movie over a few marquee jokes, or should big studios have a thicker skin when it comes to local theater marketing? Share your thoughts in the comments.