Michelle Obama Doc Saw Major Streaming Surge Amid 'Melania' Release

2025 Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival — Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty

Call it counter-programming. As Amazon Prime’s Melania documentary was released in theaters on Jan. 30, former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Becoming doc is surging to the top 10 in Netflix views.

Becoming was released in 2020. It covers Obama’s 34-city book tour after the release of her best-selling memoir of the same title. Becoming has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the top-selling memoirs of all-time.

On Jan. 23, Obama’s documentary was getting over 2,000 views, a respectable number for a six-year-old release. A week later, Becoming surged to more than 300,000 views. It spent a week in the top 10 when it was released, generating 1.5 million views from 2023 to 2025.

“The resurgence of interest in Becoming is a prime example of audiences discovering, or re-discovering, catalog content due to larger conversations in the zeitgeist,” Luminate comms director Jimmy Harney said in a statement, per The Hill. Luminate provides data for the film, TV and music industry.

Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for the Melania doc, directed by disgraced film director Brett Ratner. Ratner, who directed the Rush Hour series and X-Men: The Last Stand among other high-profile projects, hasn’t directed a film since 2017, when he was accused of sexual harassment by six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Hentsridge.

The surge in Becoming views has been encouraged across social media platforms as a way to support Obama and highlight the difference between the current reality and the Obama administration. Along with the $40 million budget for the doc itself, Amazon Prime allotted another $30 million for marketing, including a promo on the Sphere in Las Vegas.

So far, Melania, which covers the 20 days leading up to Trump’s second inauguration, has made $7 million. Per Deadline, it’s the highest-earning opening weekend for a non-fiction film in the last decade, following After Death, which earned $5 milion back in 2023.

Per box office statistics, 70% of Melania viewers were women, and 72% of them were 70 and over. The doc’s premiere was held at the Trump Kennedy Center on Jan. 29. Melania is expected to be released on Prime Video at a later date.

See social media’s reaction to the surge.