First Lady Melania Trump talks about the American experience
First Lady Melania Trump shared her immigrant story and American pride while rocking a Dolce & Gabbana look at the Melania premiere.
A movie theater in northwestern Oregon announced it had stopped showing the new “Melania” movie after Amazon presented its own movie description on the marquee.
The Lake Theater & Café in Lake Oswego, 13 miles south of Portland, is known for having witty and creative movie descriptions written on its marquee, and the movie “Melania” was no exception.
In the case of a documentary centered on first lady Melania Trump, a sign at a local business read, “Is Melania Wearing Prada? Find out on Friday,” and, quoting Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, “To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy. Melania starts on Friday.”
In an Instagram post on Feb. 2, the theater said it had been contacted by Amazon/MGM Studios, saying they were “upset with the way our big name company is selling the film,” and that the tech giant had decided not to show the film after Sunday, Feb. 8.
The marquee was later updated to read, “Please Amazon call the marquee to be upset about all of Melania’s shows being canceled and show your support at Whole Foods instead :(.”
Lake Theater & Cafe also wrote that it had received “countless emails, voicemails, and Google/Yelp reviews (which Google/Yelp has deleted) asking why we invited Melania here and disparaging us for disrespecting her.”
“It ended prematurely, but it wasn’t the public outcry (thank you for always listening) that turned the spigot on us, but corporate executives (of course, AMZN, sorry, don’t cancel Prime),” they continued in the caption.
USA TODAY has reached out to Amazon, Google and Yelp for comment.
Theater manager “willing” to exclude Amazon
Theater manager Jordan Perry said he has no hard feelings toward the studio after Amazon MGM told movie bookers they wanted the documentary “off the screen” because of its famous description. “We were happy to comply because showing this film did not seem to be acceptable to many in the local community, or at least some of our patrons,” Perry told USA TODAY in an emailed statement.
“While I personally don’t want to contribute to the left-right discourse by having an opinion, voting, or having conversations with those around me, I enjoy art and nature, and I encourage those who aren’t actively involved in bringing about change, or at least not actively involved in bringing about change, to do the same. We are what we eat,” Perry added.
Following the blackout by some moviegoers, Perry explained the decision to show the film on the theater’s website and disputed claims that screening the film supports the first lady, the Trump administration or their policies. “The canopy may seem mean, but my hope is that while temporarily fanning the flames, it will ultimately lower the temperature,” he wrote.
He wrote that an $11 ticket to screen the film would only give the “movie company currently owned by Jeff Bezos” $5.50.
“Many people now call it propaganda, but that word never occurred to me. While there are certainly deliberate blind spots in the movie, this is ‘Melania’ as Melania wants to be known, and not everyone will be happy about that,” he wrote.
in spite of fierce backlash “Melania” received poor reviews from critics. Box office hit, grossing $7 million in opening weekend, according to estimates released by Amazon MGM StuDios on February 1st.
