Reality distortion field goes wild for Melania's box office bomb

Despite the fact that two original movies were top of the box office, Melania‘s box office sucked all the air out of the room. Amazon paid $40 million for the doc and spent another $35 million to market it. Many considered Amazon’s purchase of the film to be a bribe to curry favor with the administration. But there’s a more succinct way to describe Melania: Twenty Days To History. “In Hollywood, there’s a term for what happens when a movie you’ve spent $75 million on opens with $7 million in box office: It’s a flop,” writes former A.V. Club and current Slate writer Sam Adams. He’s not wrong. It’s certainly how people thought about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple‘s $12 million opening. (Bone Temple cost $63 million). Same with Running Man‘s $16 million opening. (Running Man cost $110 million). Sure, compared to Return To Slient Hill, which landed at number 10 in its second week for a two-week total of $5.1 million, Melania is a blockbuster.

Not every new release was in its flop era this weekend. Send Help grossed more than $19 million and landed at number one. For an originality-starved Hollywood, a desert-island two-hander about workplace dynamics and power imbalances, featuring a scene in which a woman throws up into the mouth of the person she’s performing CPR on, is a genuine win for society. But it wasn’t just Sam Raimi getting back to what he does best. YouTube’s Hollywood takeover wrote another success story. Written, directed, and starring YouTuber Mariplier, a.k.a. Mark Fischbach, best known for the face in the old E meme, Iron Lung is an original sci-fi movie that Fischbach has been working on since 2023. Thanks to his legion of faithful followers and subscribers, Iron Lung grossed $17 million in 3,000 theaters. The only other new release, Shelter, a Jason Statham actioner that many are probably confusing with Gerard Butler’s Greenland 2 as they read this, came in at number six with $5.5 million.

The rest of the top five included the usual suspects. Zootopia 2 and Avatar are still hanging around in there. (It must drive James Cameron mad that Avatar 3‘s $1.5 billion is considered a failure, and Melania‘s $7 million is a success.) Meanwhile, Mercy sank like a stone in its second week while The Housemaid and Marty Supreme continue their slow, unlikely climb to box office success. Supreme is approaching $100 million domestically, and Housemaid has already surpassed $120 million. Here’s the full top 10:

1. 1) Send Help ($19 million)
2. 2) Iron Lung ($17.8 million)
3. 3) Melania ($7 million)
4. 4) Zootopia 2 ($5.9 million)
5. 5) Avatar: Fire And Ash ($5.6 million)
6. 6) Shelter ($5.5 million)
7. 7) Mercy ($4.5 million)
8. 8) The Housemaid ($3.4 million)
9. 9) Marty Supreme ($2.9 million)
10. 10) Return To Silent Hill ($1.5 million)