Did Box-Office Hit "Melania" Spark It?...Michelle Obama's 6-Year-Old Doc "Becoming" Climbs Back Up

Memoir Tour Documentary "Becoming"
Netflix Viewing Time Soars 130-Fold

The documentary film "Melania," featuring First Lady Melania Trump, wife of U.S. President Donald Trump, as its main character, recorded 10 billion won in box-office revenue during its opening weekend. At the same time, a six-year-old documentary about the activities of former First Lady Michelle Obama, wife of former President Barack Obama, is experiencing a sudden resurgence in viewership.

According to foreign media outlets including the entertainment magazine The Hollywood Reporter on the 4th (local time), Michelle Obama's documentary "Becoming" logged 47.5 million minutes of viewing time on Netflix over the past weekend. This is more than 130 times the 354,000 minutes recorded during the previous weekend (January 23-25). The documentary's streaming view count (total viewing time divided by total running time) also reached 480,000.

Michelle Obama, wife of former U.S. President Barack Obama. AP Yonhap News

After publishing her memoir "Becoming" in November 2018, Michelle Obama released a documentary of the same title in May 2020 that follows the process of her memoir book tour. The memoir sold more than 10 million copies, becoming a mega-bestseller, and the documentary of the same name also received positive ratings of 93% from critics and 78% from audiences on the U.S. film rating site Rotten Tomatoes.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why viewing time for "Becoming," released six years ago, has suddenly increased now. However, the interpretation that this is related to First Lady Melania Trump's documentary film "Melania" is gaining traction.

The film "Melania," which opened last weekend, chronicles 20 days of Melania Trump's schedule in January last year, ahead of President Trump's second-term inauguration ceremony. At the premiere held on the 29th of last month at the Trump-Kennedy Center in Washington DC, not only President Trump and the First Lady but also a large number of cabinet secretaries from departments such as Defense, Commerce, and Health and Human Services attended, and even House Speaker Mike Johnson and Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff made appearances. "Melania" earned 7.16 million dollars (10 billion won) at the North American box office over the weekend, far surpassing initial expectations and setting a strong box-office record.

On the 29th of last month (local time), Trump Donald, President of the United States, and his wife Trump Melania attended the premiere of the film 'Melania' at the Trump-Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and posed. AP Yonhap News

"Melania," for which Amazon poured 75 million dollars (about 110 billion won) into acquiring the film rights and marketing, received positive ratings of 5% from critics and 99% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Over the past weekend, 72% of moviegoers in North America were women, and the majority were middle-aged and older viewers aged 55 and above.

The Hollywood Reporter noted, "While it is not possible to simply compare theatrical performance with streaming viewership, the two First Ladies' documentaries are a clear example of political polarization."

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