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 is opening the White House for a special dinner and screening for 70 of her friends, family members and assorted VIPs.
The event, which has not been promoted or advertised, is taking place in the East Room of the White House on Saturday. Guests include director Brett Ratner; Queen Rania of Jordan; Zoom CEO Eric Yuan; Apple CEO Tim Cook; New York Stock Exchange CEO Lynn Martin; AMD CEO Linsa Su; Mike Tyson; socialite and Fiat heiress Azzi Agnelli; self-help guru Tony Robbins; and photographer Ellen von Unwerth, who shot the movie poster for the film.
Barron Trump and Ratner’s mother will also be on hand, along with Mike Hopkins of Amazon Studios, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Marc Beckman, a senior adviser and longtime manager to the First Lady who was reportedly involved in every aspect of the project.
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 are watching it Saturday night for the first time.
A full military band will meet guests at the door to play “Melania’s Waltz,” a song composed especially for the film by Hollywood composer Tony Neiman. The band will stay on to play songs from Hollywood movies for the guests.
The event will have glossy, commemorative black and white popcorn boxes for guests, served by gloved waiters so they won’t get fingerprints on them. Specially framed tickets to the movie will also be available to take home.
The Amazon-funded movie (to the tune of $59 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.
Billboards for the doc have already gone up, alongside a massive TV and radio advertising blitz. Though the Melania team hasn’t commented on the marketing dollars spent on the project, they deny Matt Belloni’s report of $35 million.
The movie tracks Melania from Trump’s 2025 presidential campaign to inauguration day. A source close to the First Lady indicates that Ratner spent months living at Mar-a-Lago for shooting.
