‘Melania’ Pulled From Oregon Movie Theater Over Shady, Yet Funny Promo

Amazon decided to pull the "Melania" film from one Oregon movie theater that used its marquee to mock the first lady.

An Oregon movie theater had its “Melania” screenings pulled after posting jokes on its marquee that mocked the first lady’s documentary release.

The Lake Theater and Cafe in Lake Oswego posted on Instagram just days after the official release of “Melania” to reveal that Amazon executives contacted the theater and requested that it pull the film due to the theater’s sarcastic marquee messages promoting it. The decision came after the theater ran a series of tongue-in-cheek marquee ads for the film, including “Does Melania wear Prada? Find out Friday,” and a quote from The Art of War: “To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts Friday.”

“Got a call that the higher-ups (i.e., at Amazon) were upset with how our marquee marketed their movie (i.e., Melania), that, per them, Sunday would be its last day here,” the theater captioned a photo of its marquee message following the film being pulled, which read, “Amazon called. Our marquee made them mad. All Melania showings cancelled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead.”

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The theater said it had already faced backlash from some locals who were not offended by the marquee messages, but were instead upset that the film was being shown in the left-leaning city.

“Also got, before then, countless emails and voicemails and Google / Yelp reviews (Google / Yelp took them down), wondering why the hell we had Melania here, or disdaining our disparaging of her,” the theater’s management wrote. “Now that it’s prematurely over, the plug pulled on us not from public outcry (always listening, thank you) but by some corporate executive (fair enough, sorry AMZN, please don’t cancel my Prime).”

The theater’s manager, Jordan Perry, said the venue sold just $196 in tickets for the film during its single weekend. He admitted he only booked “Melania” as a joke, knowing that locals would be unlikely to support it.