Thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been “pressured” into seeing the Melania documentary at cinemas around the country, a watchdog has warned.

The $75 million Amazon film opened last week to $7 million at the box office—despite universally terrible reviews.

According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, those numbers have been artificially inflated by pressure from MAGA-aligned officers leaning on their troops to buy tickets.

“People are scared,” Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the MRFF, said. Weinstein said he has received letters from members of the U.S. military at eight facilities worldwide, complaining that their superiors encouraged or pressured them to see the film.

“Nobody that I know wanted to go except for those that did not want to get jacked up by our unit commander for not attending,” one of those members told Weinstein in a letter seen by journalist Jonathan Larsen.

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[–] GreenWizard@midwest.social 9 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Unsurprising. Usually the far-right church infrastructure also buys tickets in bulks to these types of events.

I used to date a woman whose dad was a pastor and his church would get bulk tickets to stuff like Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ to give out like candy. It undoubtedly inflated the box office numbers.

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The Christian ethos. If you can’t take over the cultural zeitgeist, fake it til you make it. Even with all their political power now, they still can’t have what they really want, which is normal people not thinking they’re weirdos.

[–] GreenWizard@midwest.social 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I feel sometimes like many of them almost acknowledge their weird dichotomies but compartmentalize it. For example, to support ICE to me seems inherently unchristian, because the bible including the new testament constantly talks about treating foreigners well and being peaceful/forgiving/non-materialistic.

But they will excuse voting for Trump by saying "well, he isn't my preacher!". To me that is simply moral relativism, so the Christian part is even more odd, how they barely ever display the values the bible says that they are supposed to live by. It is totally superficial and a country-club type arrangement.

The government is a proxy that allows their bigotry to manifest in the real world, while they can still wear a fake smile and say "I'll pray for you" and in their own mind they are an agent of peace on earth through their prayers. Christianity (USA right-wing varieties) to me is a strange broken mindset, I grew up with reformed Christianity and have had to purge it from my mind as an adult.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 11 hours ago

https://feedingtheflockministry.com/2025/08/01/meaning-of-taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/