In today’s Box Office Corner on the “Daily Variety” podcast, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin breaks down the weekend numbers and finds “Melania” surprising, “Send Help” in first place and “Iron Lung” setting a new standard for DIY creator films at multiplexes.
Meanwhile, Disney is holding off on big news this week, with its board expected to name Bob Iger’s successor as CEO. But first, the Mouse House was required to report earnings for the final three months of 2025 before the market opens on Monday.
Amazon MGM Studios’ “Melania” has become as much a political story as a documentary film story, amid outrage over the $40 million price tag paid for the film by one of the world’s largest companies and a company with many business interests in Washington, D.C. The film’s release price was expected to be in the range of $3 million to $5 million. However, “Melania” exceeded expectations, grossing $7 million in its opening weekend.
“The film came in at No. 3 at the domestic box office with about $7 million. On the one hand, that’s a huge start for a documentary. It’s pretty rare for a documentary to hit the $1 million mark, or even reach $7 million by the end of its run, so starting there is very important. On the other hand, most documentaries, like Amazon They didn’t spend as much as MGM. They spent $35 million on marketing the movie, which is a lot of money for a documentary. This isn’t the type of movie that would normally get people into theaters to justify that kind of expense, but I don’t think ‘Melania’ is in danger of making a profit in theaters since it’s expected to be released ahead of schedule and could see a significant drop in subsequent weekends.”
20th Century Studios’ thriller “Send Help,” directed by Sam Raimi, led the box office in its opening weekend. But the real surprise was Iron Lung, which set a new standard for films made by DIY creators. The film shocked industry insiders, collecting $21.7 million worldwide in its theatrical debut. A YouTuber known as Markiplier is said to have made the film on a budget of $3 million. The fact that his supporters went to theaters in large numbers is a welcome development for the box office.
“He’s been encouraging people to go to theaters, and he has, and there’s some hope that this movie will be brought forward. It’s already been a huge success, with people going to see it the opening weekend and maybe seeing a big drop off in the second weekend,” Rubin said. “So that’s good news for the theaters that are showing this production that feels like it just came out of nowhere and really brought people into the theater.”
(Photo: “Iron Lung”)
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