In this Post-Stross Universe, where fiction is now the upper bound on how positive the future will be, we are watching the plot of #MelBrooks's 1967 movie _The Producers_ play out in real time.

The audience has yet to start laughing at #Amazon's cunning scheme to give a bung to #DonaldJTrump via a disastrous #Melania movie about the rise to power of a monarch and his consort.

https://mastodon.scot/@JdeBP/115986124726085280

#MelaniaTrump #USMovies #SpringTimeForHitler #TheProducers #PostStrossUniverse #fascism

@arrrg

I too was concerned for their wellbeing afterwards.

And they don't have the option of doing what that lady who left after 20 minutes did.

https://mastodon.scot/@JdeBP/115983497912180622

The Daily Record reported a total of 16 tickets sold in Edinburgh and Glasgow as of this morning. ABC reported 50 pre-booked tickets across the whole of Australia for opening day.

https://dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/melania-trump-documentary-sells-just-36641836

https://abc.net.au/news/2026-01-31/melania-trump-movie-and-why-we-might-need-to-follow-the-money/106285248

@cstross
#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies

@arrrg

I too was concerned for their wellbeing afterwards.

And they don't have the option of doing what that lady who left after 20 minutes did.

https://mastodon.scot/@JdeBP/115983497912180622

The Daily Record reported a total of 16 tickets sold in Edinburgh and Glasgow as of this morning. ABC reported 50 pre-booked tickets across the whole of Australia for opening day.

https://dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/melania-trump-documentary-sells-just-36641836

https://abc.net.au/news/2026-01-31/melania-trump-movie-and-why-we-might-need-to-follow-the-money/106285248

@cstross
#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies

@cstross

They're not far off, either.

I just turned up this. Apparently, 4 people joined The Metro's reviewer on opening night, plus an additional 1 who was apparently another movie reviewer.

So a third of the audience was people who were being paid to watch the movie. (-:

https://metro.co.uk/2026/01/30/sat-a-near-empty-cinema-melania-thought-26612808/

Amusing coincidence: Kimberly Bond also writes features for Cosmo.

@GetCarter
#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies #Amazon #TheMetro

@cstross

They're not far off, either.

I just turned up this. Apparently, 4 people joined The Metro's reviewer on opening night, plus an additional 1 who was apparently another movie reviewer.

So a third of the audience was people who were being paid to watch the movie. (-:

https://metro.co.uk/2026/01/30/sat-a-near-empty-cinema-melania-thought-26612808/

Amusing coincidence: Kimberly Bond also writes features for Cosmo.

@GetCarter
#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies #Amazon #TheMetro

@cstross

The review in @GetCarter 's thread is one of those recycled quotes that actually comes from elsewhere according to Snopes; but lower in the thread people have suggested that the ticket sales for these places can be accounted for *entirely* by the news/magazine movie reviewers who did not have advance screenings.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@GetCarter/115982369126621417

#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies #VueCinema #Islington #Amazon

@cstross

The review in @GetCarter 's thread is one of those recycled quotes that actually comes from elsewhere according to Snopes; but lower in the thread people have suggested that the ticket sales for these places can be accounted for *entirely* by the news/magazine movie reviewers who did not have advance screenings.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@GetCarter/115982369126621417

#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies #VueCinema #Islington #Amazon

@GetCarter

Who on Earth were those three people in Islington? And are they alright afterwards?

https://mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/melania-trump-suffers-humiliating-blow-36629616

#Melania #MelaniaTrump #USMovies #VueCinema #Islington