Melania pulled from cinema over joke made on marquee

Film studio Amazon MGM has pulled the documentary Melania from being screened at a cinema in the US after it was wryly mocked on the marquee.

Film studio Amazon MGM has pulled the documentary Melania from being screened at a cinema in the US after it was wryly mocked on the marquee.

The Lake Theatre and Cafe in Lake Oswego, Oregon, was screening the documentary about First Lady Melania Trump.

But the cinema lost the rights to the movie after Amazon was informed of the message on the sign outside the cinema.

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The cheeky sign which saw Lake Theatre lose its rights to screen Melania.

"Does Melania wear Prada? Find out Friday!" the marquee read.

Another sign read: "To defeat your enemy, you must know them."

In a blog post, cinema manager Jordan Perry revealed how much the movie had made for the Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon at his theatre.

"We contributed $196 to the Jeff Bezos Trust Fund this week.

"Jeff Bezos won't notice the $196. He wouldn't notice $1960, though someone on his team noticed our marquee."

The marquee now reads: "Amazon called. Our marquee made them mad. "All Melania shows cancelled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead."

Whole Foods is a grocery chain also owned by Amazon.

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Lake Theatre in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is well known for its wry marquee.

Perry's blog post also defended screening the film in the first place, to the chagrin of people in the very progressive town south of Portland.

Perry said he thought the notion of a documentary about Melania Trump being released funny.

"If Kamala won, imagine Douglas being released this week — I mean, that's also funny, right?" he wrote.

"I did not find Melania boring! The woman, yes. The movie, no."

The cinema has a long history of wry jokes on its marquee. It described Killers of the Flower Moon, a film with Leonardo Di Caprio and Robert De Niro, as "Starring Lily Gladstone (and some other guys)".

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Melania Trump at the premiere of her movie.

Current release Hamnet is described as "Hamnet's about Hamlet (Sort of)."

Perry said the marquee debacle may put the cinema on "Amazon's black list for a while".

Melania debuted in third place in the US box office with $10 million in takings.

This makes it the highest debut for a documentary in years.

But Melania has a steep hill to climb if it intends to be profitable for the studio.

Amazon paid $57 million for the rights to the movie, much of which went into the First Lady's pocket.

It also reportedly spent a further $50 million on promoting the movie.

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Amazon has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting Melania.

Melania has also shown an enormous divide between critical reception and how general audiences responded.

Critics reviews gathered by Rotten Tomatoes showed just 7 per cent of them liked the movie.

By contrast, 98 per cent of audience members on the site said they liked the movie.

In Australia, Melania debuted on its opening weekend at 31st at the box office, selling just $22,284 worth of tickets.

In its first three days in release, it sold just $675 per screen.

Melania Trump in the upcoming documentary.

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