Custom popcorn buckets have become all the rage in recent years, with moviegoers snatching up themed buckets for Wicked, Superman, and Avatar: Fire and Ash, just to name a few. There was also that Dune: Part II bucket that grabbed headlines for being a little, shall we say, suggestive. But as weird as some of these popcorn buckets can be, there might not be anything weirder than the buckets you’ll see at theaters this weekend. There’s now a Melania Trump popcorn bucket, in honor of the First Lady’s new “documentary.”
The “limited-edition” Melania popcorn bucket will be available for $12.99 at theaters that are showing the film starting this Friday. The novelty items have already shown up on eBay, though it’s unclear where those items are being sourced.
We asked representatives for the Regal cinema chain if this was the first popcorn bucket for a documentary. The answer is that it depends on what you consider a “documentary.”
“Since the release of Barbie on July 21, 2023, Regal has frequently offered collectible movie-themed containers across a wide range of film genres including many non-fiction releases like Andrea Bocelli 30: The Celebration from Fathom Entertainment, which blur the lines of the documentary category,” Kevan Karr, senior communications manager at Regal, told Gizmodo over email.
“Several films about musicians have covered both band history and their music, so it would be difficult to claim Melania is the first documentary associated with a collectible container,” Karr continued.
The Melania movie is expected to bomb at the box office this weekend, according to industry experts. Amazon MGM paid $40 million for the distribution rights, and an additional $35 million was reportedly spent on marketing. The movie will be shown in about 1,500 theaters, but is expected to bring in just $3 million, according to the Wrap.
But the abysmal box office isn’t likely to disappoint guys like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos too much. The hefty $40 million fee has obviously been seen as a bribe for President Donald Trump and his family, who have profited handsomely from its association with the White House. Amazon has government contracts, especially when it comes to AWS cloud services, and Bezos’s other endeavors, like space company Blue Origin, rake in billions more.
The First Lady hosted a White House screening of her film in the East Room on Saturday night, the same day that federal agents in Minneapolis killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the White House event, drawing criticism and calls for a boycott of Apple products. Cook sent out an internal company memo on Tuesday saying that he had spoken with the president personally, though it’s not clear what was said. Cook called for “de-escalation,” though it’s also not clear what the fuck that means. Given Tim’s coziness with the Trump regime, he could very well mean that the people under siege in Minnesota right now are supposed to back down.
Amazon didn’t give critics early access to Melania, which is never a great sign, but Letterboxd has already been flooded with people panning the movie. “I really don’t care, do u? ½ star,” a reviewer wrote, a reference to the jacket Melania Trump wore at the height of the child separation policy during Donald’s first term.
The movie is also being released overseas, though sales are expected to be even worse there. UK ticket sales have been “soft,” as the head of a theater chain in London told the Guardian. The first Friday afternoon screening of Melania at their flagship theater in London has sold just one ticket.
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