If Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos have one thing in common, it is their ability to take a joke.
Which is why it’s so unexpected that Amazon would remove Melania from a movie theatre when some light mockery of the film appeared on the marquee.
As originally reported by The Oregonian and later nationally by The Daily Beast, Amazon requested that an Oregon theatre known for finding artistically humorous ways to market its films stop screening Melania.
The Lake Theatre and Cafe in Lake Oswego advertised last week’s premiere of Amazon MGM’s controversial documentary with statements like “Does Melania wear Prada?” Find out Friday” and – quoting Sun Tzu’s The Art of War – “To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts on Friday.”
According to manager Jordan Perry, the theatre received a call from Amazon requesting that the film be pulled.The studio was unhappy and/or did not like my approach to selling their film to our own audience,” Perry told The Oregonian. The theatre marquee was later modified to read “Amazon called.” Our marquee infuriated them. All Melania shows have been cancelled. “Show your support at Whole Foods instead.” This was followed by, “Join Amazon Prime for Free Two-Day Shipping.” (Amazon provided no quick comment on the matter).
The theater’s management stated on Instagram that they had received numerous complaints from local moviegoers long before the film was withdrawn. Many were unhappy that their quirky Portland suburb cinema screened Melania in the first place.”Before that, we had innumerable emails, voicemails, and Google / Yelp reviews (Google / Yelp removed them) asking why the hell we had Melania here, or mocking our criticism of her,” the Instagram message stated. “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).”
Perry reported that his theatre sold a remarkable $196 in tickets for the film during its single weekend.
Perry rented Melania for a simple and hilarious reason: given the left-leaning neighbourhood, he thought screening Melania would be funny. Additionally, it was a relatively dead time for new films anyhow.”Wouldn’t it be immensely odd, even comical, to show [Melania] here, at your clearly anti-establishment, occasionally troublemaking neighbourhood cinema?” he wondered.
And it could have been if someone on either side had a sense of humour about it.
