One of Melania Trump’s senior advisers dragged a trio of Hollywood heavyweights into an unusual victory lap over the first lady’s documentary “Melania.”
Marc Beckman invoked Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts and Leonardo DiCaprio in social media posts on Tuesday, using the box-office performances of their recent movies to bolster his claims. Cruise was first in the firing line as Beckman seized on the disappointing box-office opening numbers for the actor’s new movie, “Digger.”
“On a per-theater basis, MELANIA outperformed Tom Cruise’s DIGGER by approximately 67%, despite opening in roughly half as many theaters,” Beckman wrote.
“(Digger played in 1,543 more theaters than MELANIA),” he also noted.
In a second post, he argued that Melania Trump’s documentary delivered “extraordinary theatrical drawing power, rivaling some of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars.” Beckman claimed the movie also outperformed films featuring Roberts and DiCaprio, and said it “did not need Hollywood-scale distribution to command a Hollywood-scale audience.” Beckman did not name the specific movies.
FLOTUS’ documentary did record the biggest opening for a nonfiction film in a decade. But its estimated $16.7 million in theatrical earnings were hardly notable considering the reported $75 million Amazon spent acquiring the rights and then marketing the film.