Brett Ratner’s controversial biopic of the first lady was projected to open at the high end of $5 million, but premiered to just over $7 million.

*Melania *beats expectations, but Sam Raimi horror flick *Send Help *tops the weekend box office

Brett Ratner's controversial biopic of the first lady was projected to open at the high end of $5 million, but premiered to just over $7 million.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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on February 1, 2026 7:18 p.m. ET

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Melania Trump in 'Melania'; Rachel McAdams in 'Send Help'. Credit:

Amazon MGM Studios; Brook Rushton/20th Century Studios

- *Melania *surpassed box office expectations with a $7 million open, but has little hope of recouping the $75 million Amazon MGM Studios paid to make and market the first lady biopic.

- Sam Raimi's return to horror, *Send Help*, took the box office gold with a strong $28 million global debut on an estimated $40 million budget.

- Next week, few films seem poised to overtake *Send Help*, save possibly *Dracula*, a new take on the immortal vampire from Luc Besson, starring Christoph Waltz and Caleb Landry Jones.

The MAGA movie event of the year (so far) finally premiered, and the results are mixed.

Brett Ratner's *Melania*, a new biopic about the first lady's second White House stint and the director's first film after he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women in 2017, opened to $7 million domestically this weekend. That figure from box office tracking service Comscore pales in comparison to the staggering $75 million price tag Amazon MGM Studios reportedly spent on the film's licensing and promotion, but it exceeds the projections virtually every box office prognosticator forecast for the film.

Last week, BoxOfficePro senior vice president and editorial director Daniel Loria told * *that after an initial projection of $1-2 million, the trade publication for the theatrical industry set their final advance figure for *Melania*'s open at $2-5 million. But Loria said he wasn't "really buying that 4 or 5 number," citing Amazon's expensive rollout for the Chris Pratt thriller *Mercy *the weekend before, the fact that documentaries rarely fare well at the box office, and *Melania *being "partisan" but not "provocative," which has led to success for other docs targeted at conservative audiences, among other reasons.

So *Melania *won a battle this weekend, but if profitability is the real war, launching at 10 percent of its estimated budget does not bode well for the doc.

Still from 'Iron Lung'.

Markiplier Studios

There was another film that achieved an unambiguous win at the box office this weekend: *Send Help*, the new survivalist comic-thriller from genre master Sam Raimi starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien.

His first film since 2022's *Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness*, which marks his long-awaited return to horror after 2009's *Drag Me to Hell*, grossed $20 million in its premiere at the domestic box office. *Send Help *was made for approximately $40 million, making its global total of $28 million a great start, even with unaccounted-for marketing expenses factored in.

Another success story can be found in the No. 2 spot on the domestic charts, sandwiched between the *Send Help *and *Melania*. Popular YouTuber Mark Fischbach, better known by his username Markiplier, opened his feature directorial debut, *Iron Lung, *to an impressive $17 million.

Premiering on just over 3,000 screens and made on a minuscule estimated budget of $3 million, *Iron Lung*'s per-theater average of nearly $6,000 represents the latest victory in the YouTube–to–horror helmer pipeline that has lately ushered figures like Chris Stuckmann (*Shelby Oaks*) and the Philippou brothers (*Talk to Me*, *Bring Her Back*) into the spotlight.****

Rachel McAdams was told she was 'too old' for 'Mean Girls' lead role: 'This is a futile exercise'

'Mercy' topples 'Avatar' after weeks-long reign in meager end-of-January U.S. box office

*Avatar: Fire and Ash* fell precipitously to No. 6 on the domestic leaderboard this weekend, after *Mercy *broke its five-week winning streak last weekend. That CGI epic earned $5.5 million for a domestic total of $386 million and a staggering global gross of $1.4 billion.

*Fire and Ash *remains at No. 2 on the global charts, with *Send Help *at No. 1 and juggernaut *Zootopia 2 *still at No. 3 after nine weeks in theaters. Disney's barnyard bonanza of a sequel now stands at a global total of $1.7 billion, making it 2025's most profitable domestic release.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.*****

After *Send Help*'s much needed infusion of vitality, next weekend's slate of contenders returns to the sluggish pace January otherwise set at the box office.

There's Luc Besson's *Dracula*, which, starring Christoph Waltz and Caleb Landry Jones and beautifully photographed by Colin Wandersman, isn't without its appeals. But coming just a year after Robert Eggers' *Nosferatu*, will audiences be clamoring for more bared necks and petticoats?

The conclusion to Renny Harlin and Madelaine Petsch's *Strangers *trilogy is also slated for release, but a marked decline from *The Strangers: Chapter 1 *to *The Strangers: Chapter 2 *puts a big question mark over the last and latest entry. *Send Help *may not need any help holding onto the box office crown for a second week.

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