A new movie about the wife of President Donald Trump has viewers watching one about President Barack Obama’s first lady.

Michelle Obama documentary Becoming spikes on Netflix as Melania hits theaters

A new movie about the wife of President Donald Trump has viewers watching one about President Barack Obama's first lady.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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February 4, 2026 7:46 p.m. ET

Michelle Obama stars in 'Becoming'. Credit:

The arrival of First Lady Melania Trump's new documentary in theaters meant only good things for her predecessor Michelle Obama's own 2020 doc, *Becoming*.

Beginning Friday, Jan. 30, the day that *Melania* was released in theaters, *Becoming*, which is streaming on Netflix, saw a bump in viewership in the U.S., according to data provider Luminate. Overall, there was an increase of more than 13,000 percent through Feb. 1.

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Put another way, more than 47.5 million minutes of the film were viewed over the weekend, compared to 354,000 minutes the previous weekend.**

Not that Amazon MGM Studios' *Melania* did poorly at the box office. It opened domestically with a total of $7 million in ticket sales, which was actually more than had been projected, although far less than the reported $75 million licensing and marketing budget.

'Melania' stars Melania Trump.

Prime Video had noted that the price tag for the movie included the movie as well an upcoming docuseries, and said the company planned "to recoup some of the cost of the film when it streams on Prime Video through advertising and Prime signups."**

The first film directed by Brett Ratner since being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, *Melania* found most of its audience in older white women.

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Citing data from Amazon MGM, NPR reported that 75 percent of the audience was white, 70 percent were women, and 72 percent were 55 or older. The most successful markets were Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and West Palm Beach.

The film earned jeers from many critics; its Rotten Tomatoes score from critics stands at 5 percent, based on 39 reviews at the time of publication. Meanwhile, the audience scored it at 99 percent, based on over 1,000 "verified" ratings (that is, moviegoers who were confirmed to have purchased a ticket through Rotten Tomatoes' parent business unit Fandango), showing the political divisiveness that's happening in the country far beyond Washington, D.C.

After all, President Donald Trump himself has called *Melania*, which follows its subject in the days before her husband's second inauguration, "a must-watch."**

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Source: “EW Documentary”