The $75 million feature doc “Melania” is premiering on Friday, with screenings at three local theaters – Zeus in Waynesboro, and the Regal locations in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.
Looks like plenty of good seats are still available, from a scan of the theaters’ websites.
Maybe the issue for the First Lady here is, Friday is also the premiere date for “Iron Lung,” a movie made by a YouTuber based on a video game.
There’s a reason I haven’t been to a movie theater in several years.
“Iron Lung,” a low-budget horror flick directed, executive produced, edited by and starring a guy who goes by the name Markiplier, estimated production cost: $4 million, looks to have strong advance sales, from my peeking at the websites for our local theaters.
As of 10 a.m. Thursday, I tracked pre-sales for “Iron Lung” at the Regal Stonefield in Charlottesville at 64 tickets for the 7:15 p.m. showing, and 15 tickets for the 10:15 p.m. showing; at the Regal location in Harrisonburg, we get 21 tix at 3:50 p.m., 64 at 7 p.m., 45 at 7:20 p.m., 32 at 10:10 p.m., and 42 at 10:30 p.m.
“Melania,” the $75 million vanity project backed by Amazon bazillionaire Jeff Bezos and starring the weird hat-wearing wife of Donald Trump, it’s not doing so well in the pre-sales.
No tickets are shown as sold at any of the four showings at Zeus in Waynesboro on Friday.
Three of the four showings at the Harrisonburg Regal have no ticket sales.
The Regal Stonefield shows a total of 26 across its four showings on Friday.
I don’t do a lot of movie-industry news writing, but I’d come to two conclusions, based on these numbers.
- “Iron Lung” is going to make that YouTube guy a lot of money.
- “Melania” is going to be the bust that we expected it to be.
And a third thing: I may never go to a movie theater again.
Video: Don’t miss ‘Melania’
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Chris Graham
