How much did Amazon ultimately pay for the streaming and distribution rights to Melania?
Executive summary
Amazon paid documentary">$40 million to acquire the worldwide streaming and distribution license for the Melania documentary—the headline figure reported across outlets—while several publications and industry sources frame the company’s total outlay for the project, including theatrical distribution and marketing, at roughly $75 million (a $40 million rights fee plus about $35 million in promotion and theatrical spend) [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting varies on whether the larger number is described strictly as a rights purchase or as a rights-plus-marketing total, so the clearest, consistently reported answer for the price of the streaming/distribution rights alone is $40 million [1] [5].
1. The clean number: $40 million for the rights
Multiple outlets report that Amazon MGM Studios won a competitive bidding war for the film by paying $40 million to license Melania and to underpin a planned follow-up docuseries, an amount described specifically as the acquisition price for distribution and streaming rights [1] [2] [6]. Industry summaries repeat the $40 million figure as the amount Amazon “paid to acquire” or “for the rights” to the film, and sources note that other major streamers and studios—including Disney, Netflix and Paramount—had bid as well [1] [7].
2. Why some reports say $75 million—and what that means
Several major outlets and trade reports place Amazon’s total spend on the project at about $75 million, which combines the $40 million rights fee with an estimated $35 million spent on marketing and a global theatrical rollout; these accounts frame $75 million as the company’s full distribution-and-promotion tab rather than the licensing fee alone [3] [8] [9]. The New York Times and others use language like “spent $75 million to buy distribution rights and market its release,” which can blur the line between pure acquisition cost and aggregate expenditure on acquisition plus theatrical promotion [3].
3. How sources differ and why that matters
The discrepancy in phrasing—“$40 million for rights” versus “$75 million spent on rights and marketing”—is tied to different journalistic emphases: some outlets isolate the licensing payment, while others present the enterprise cost of turning the film into a theatrical-plus-streaming event [2] [3]. That distinction matters for the specific question asked: the amount Amazon “ultimately paid for the streaming and distribution rights” is consistently reported as $40 million, whereas the $75 million figure captures a broader corporate expenditure that includes marketing and theatrical distribution [1] [9].
4. Context and competing interpretations
Commentators flagged the $40 million acquisition as unusually high for a documentary and treated the additional $35 million marketing spend as part of a strategic decision to push a theatrical release and follow-on series on Prime Video; critics suggested political motives for such an expensive acquisition, an interpretation that some outlets explicitly discuss [5] [8] [10]. Amazon itself has positioned the investment as part of a different economics model—using theatrical visibility and global distribution to drive long-tail streaming value across its Prime audience—an argument repeated by studio representatives quoted in coverage [2] [8].
5. Bottom line and reporting limits
The straightforward, well-sourced answer is that Amazon paid $40 million to acquire the streaming and distribution rights to Melania, and reporters commonly add that the company spent roughly another $35 million on marketing and theatrical distribution—bringing the company’s total reported spend tied to the film to about $75 million—though that larger figure is an aggregate rather than a standalone “rights” fee [1] [3] [4]. If further precision is required—such as contract terms, backend payments to producers or how much the film’s executive producers received—those details are not fully disclosed in the cited reporting and would require access to contract documents or direct confirmation from the parties [11].