The official premiere of the Amazon-backed “Melania” movie isn’t until Thursday night at the Kennedy Center, but with a snowstorm about to bear down on Washington, D.C., First Lady Melania Trump opened the White House for a special dinner and screening this past Saturday for 70 of her friends, family members, and assorted VIPs, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The event, which had not been promoted or advertised, took place in the White House on Saturday. Guests included director Brett Ratner; Queen Rania of Jordan; Zoom CEO Eric Yuan; Cook; New York Stock Exchange CEO Lynn Martin; AMD CEO Lisa Su; Mike Tyson; socialite and Fiat heiress Azzi Agnelli; self-help guru Tony Robbins; and photographer Ellen von Unwerth, who shot the movie poster (above) for the film. The private gathering featured a black-tie screening of the Amazon MGM Studios documentary, which chronicles Melania Trump’s life over 20 key days leading up to President Trump’s second inauguration. Attendees enjoyed the intimate preview ahead of the film’s wider theatrical release.
McKinley Franklin for The Hollywood Reporter:
Since the usual White House screening room in the East Wing has been shut down to construct the Trump ballroom, Melania built a make-shift theater, with state of the art sound and film equipment (overseen by Ratner himself), and a giant movie screen brought in for the occasion.
Sources say nobody outside of Melania, Ratner, and a very small group of their associates have yet to see the movie, including the President and his advisors, who [watched] it Saturday night for the first time.
A full military band [met] guests at the door to play “Melania’s Waltz,” a song composed especially for the film by Hollywood composer Tony Neiman. The band [stayed] to play songs from Hollywood movies for the guests.
The Amazon-funded movie (to the tune of $40 million) is opening nationwide in theaters on Jan. 30, preceded by a Kennedy Center premiere for VIPs and dignitaries on Jan 29. Concurrently with the Kennedy Center, they’re having smaller premieres in 20 cities including Nashville, Boston, San Francisco and Vegas for “local VIPs,” friends and supporters of the First Lady, featuring red carpets and step and repeats.
MacDailyNews Note: The streaming release of “Melania” on Amazon Prime Video is currently slated for “mid-2026.”
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