Stephen Colbert had some fun at the expense of Melania Trump after news came out that her documentary, Melania, performed higher than initially expected at the box office while still falling short of what it cost to make it.
During The Late Show on Thursday, February 5, Colbert, 61, started talking about the movie — which was directed by Brett Ratner — about the first lady, 55, that has been the subject of controversy given the seemingly direct payments it put into the pockets of the Trump Family. Specifically, Colbert called out Melania’s alleged $28 million payday.
“It was released on Friday and despite low initial sales and worse than terrible reviews, Amazon claims the movie made $7 million in its opening weekend,” Colbert began. “Which has been called ‘the best start for a documentary excluding concert films in 40 years.’”
“That’s a lot of qualifiers,” he added.
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“The $7 million would seem like a solid opening until you realize that’s less than 10 percent of the $75 million Amazon spent on the documentary, which includes paying the First Lady herself at least $28 million,” Colbert continued. “That’s enough cash to put a smile on your face… If that were physically possible.”
Colbert ended the segment by having a Melania Trump impersonator, played by actress Laura Benanti, come on his show for a fake interview where she overtly got hyped about getting $28 million for doing nothing and made jokes about how she doesn’t actually live at the White House with President Donald Trump.
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When Colbert asked the impersonator what the film is actually about, she responded: “It’s about $28 million in my pocket, cha-ching!”
Colbert and the impersonator also discussed the film’s poor ticket sales overseas. Specifically, how South African theaters pulled the movie from theaters ahead of its release due to alleged poor ticket sales. The film also received mostly poor reviews from critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 10 percent as of Monday, February 2.