After a dismal pre-opening projection, and then a much sunnier mid-weekend forecast, MELANIA’s opening weekend box office topped the latter, but fell short of the former.

Industry reports out Sunday reveal that the new documentary about First Lady Melania Trump pulled in $7.04 million over the weekend while playing in 1,778 North American theaters. That figure is well ahead of the $3-5 million which was initially projected earlier in the week, but does represent a solid dip from where the box office haul was expected to land after a better-than-expected performance on Friday and early Saturday.

As of Saturday afternoon, MELANIA was projected to finish in third place over the weekend with $8.1 million in ticket sales — a figure which caught industry observers off guard.

“No one saw that coming, with many suggesting Melania was a bomb before it even opened based on empty, or nearly empty, seat maps in cinemas across the country,” The Hollywood Observer’s Pamela McClintock wrote.

But the final total of just above $7 million will reinforce the idea among some critics that MELANIA should ultimately go down as a box office bomb. Amazon plunked down $40 million to make MELANIA (with at least $28 million going to the first lady herself), and $35 million to market it.

The film was almost universally panned by critics, but received high audience response scores on several websites — although many of the user reviews on the website Rotten Tomatoes appear to have come from brand new accounts.

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The post JUST IN: Final Numbers for MELANIA Slide After Rosy Saturday Projection, Doc Pulls in Just Over $7M in First Weekend Box Office first appeared on Mediaite.

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