Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that the company’s $75 million documentary following Melania Trump was a “good business decision,” although he reiterated that he was not involved in the decision to acquire the project from director Brett Ratner.
In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday morning, Bezos was asked whether the doc was part of an effort to placate President Trump.
“The Melania thing is a falsehood that will not die,” Bezos responded, before defending the film’s performance. “I had nothing to do with that. By the way, it appears it was a good business decision. You know, it did very well in theaters. It’s done very well on streaming. People are very curious about Melania.
“So even though I had nothing to do with it, you know, it appears that the Amazon team made a very wise business decision,” he added. “I also had nothing to do with Project Hail Mary, which I regret because it’s an incredible success. I wish I had greenlit that.”
While Melania opened to about $8 million, it only garnered around $16.6 million at the worldwide box office. While viewership on Prime Video is not entirely clear, it did top the charts on that service after it debuted. The tech giant spent an estimated $40 million to buy it and another $35 million to market it. There is also a docuseries that will be released in the future, continuing the story.
“Amazon’s a big company and makes a lot of decisions,” Bezos said of the call. “But no, this idea that, you know, that somehow that is a way of buying influence, it’s just not. It’s just not correct. I can see why people say this. And by the way, you know, the same thing at the Post. You know, I want the Post’s opinion section to stand for free markets, kind of what I’ve been talking to you about today, free markets and individual personal liberties. I think that’s those are founding pillars of America. It’s one of the reasons that America has been so successful.”
Sorkin ultimately pressed Bezos on the changes he made at The Washington Post, which included drastic cuts to the newsroom.
“The Post needs to be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own two feet. It needs to be,” Bezos said, adding that the “signals” they were getting from readers were not encouraging.
“It’s a signal that we’re providing a relevant service. Your paper, The New York Times, you guys make a ton of money. You guys are doing very well financially, and you’re providing a service that people are willing to pay for,” Bezos added. “I didn’t pick who was going to get laid off or which departments. I said, ‘Follow the data, follow the data.’ And I said, ‘There’s one exception to this … Don’t follow the data on investigative reporting.’ The heart of the Post is investigative reporting. And guess what? Our newsroom today, even after the layoffs … is still larger than when we did Watergate and the Pentagon Papers.
“The Post is going to continue to be an important institution,” Bezos continued. “And in fact, it’s going to be a more important institution because of this financial discipline. It needs to be relevant to readers. It needs to stand on its own two feet. I don’t want it to be a charity. It doesn’t need to be and it shouldn’t be.”
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