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Michelle Obama's Netflix documentary surges after 'Melania' hits theaters

Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News on

Published in Entertainment News

Six years after its release, Michelle Obama’s Netflix documentary has experienced a revival amid Melania Trump’s movie hitting theaters.

According to data tracking company Luminate, viewership in the U.S. for “Becoming” surged over 13,000% last weekend compared to the previous one.

While roughly 354,000 minutes of the Emmy-nominated chronicle were viewed the weekend of Jan. 23-25, more than 47.5 million minutes of “Becoming” were viewed over Melania’s opening weekend.

“The resurgence of interest in ‘Becoming,’ is a prime example of audiences discovering, or re-discovering, catalog content due to larger conversations in the zeitgeist,” Luminate Communications Lead Jimmy Harney said in a statement.

In response to the widely promoted Trump movie’s premiere weekend, social media users encouraged followers to help make the Obama documentary the No. 1 film on Netflix.

“We need a moral victory this weekend,” TikTok user Nathan C Jun said, explaining how the move “would be so embarrassing for ‘Melania’ to simultaneously tank.”

 

Despite being largely panned by critics, “Melania” had the biggest opening for a nonfiction feature in the last decade. It exceeded U.S. expectations by bringing in around $7 million on its opening weekend, compared to the $1-5 million that industry outlets projected.

Still, it was only a drop in the bucket toward what it cost to make and market the Brett Ratner-helmed production.

Amazon MGM Studios reportedly paid $40 million for “Melania,” and spent an additional $35 million on promotional efforts.

The documentary is expected to stream on Prime Video at a later date.


©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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