‘She did get aes in the seats’: Alexandra Pelosi calls Melania Trump her MVP after ‘MAGA porn’ documentary success**
Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi praised First Lady Melania Trump this week, calling her the “MVP” after the strong box office performance of a new documentary she described as “MAGA porn.”
Pelosi, the daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), made the comments during her first appearance on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle. She joked that her remarks might guarantee she would never be invited back.
“I’m saying as the 55-year-old white woman in the room, as a documentary filmmaker for a living, Melania with her MAGA porn, she killed it at the box office this week,” Pelosi said, while also calling the film itself “pure propaganda.”
Pelosi is known for directing political documentaries, including The Insurrectionist Next Door and Pelosi in the House. She said she was stunned by the financial success of the Melania documentary, particularly because documentaries rarely perform well in conservative regions.
The documentary, directed by Brett Ratner, brought in more than $7 million during its opening weekend. That figure reportedly marked the highest debut for a documentary in a decade. Since then, the film has maintained solid ticket sales, pushing its domestic total to around $11 million.
Pelosi said she was especially surprised to see the film drawing audiences in southern and more Republican-leaning states, which she described as an unusual trend for documentaries.
The filmmaker also pointed to Ratner’s involvement as another unexpected twist. Ratner has not directed a feature film since 2014’s Hercules and largely disappeared from Hollywood after multiple sexual assault and harassment allegations surfaced in 2017. Those allegations included claims from actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, which Ratner has denied.
Pelosi also referenced Ratner’s name appearing in documents released by the Department of Justice related to convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. She noted that one photo shows Ratner and Epstein together with women. Ratner has previously insisted he did not have a personal relationship with Epstein.
“About 20 years ago, I had a girlfriend, I was in love with her, we were engaged, she was my fiancé, we went to an event and we were sitting on the couch and the photo was taken at that event,” Ratner said in a Fox News interview. Despite her criticism of the documentary, Pelosi acknowledged the results were undeniable.
“She did get a**es in the seats,” Pelosi said of Melania Trump. “And documentary filmmakers in the south, that doesn’t actually really happen for us. So I say, you go, girl. And with a director who was canceled during the Me Too movement and his big comeback in the Epstein files, and he’s the director of the film, I mean, you can’t script this stuff.”
While the film is performing strongly for its genre, questions remain about profitability. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for the documentary and an accompanying docuseries. The company also allegedly spent another $35 million on marketing, meaning the project would likely need to earn well over $100 million at the box office to turn a profit from ticket sales alone.