Melania Trump’s new documentary has been savaged by critics after it opened around the world with barely a handful of tickets sold in theatres.

The $US75 million ($107 million) Amazon production has scored just one star on Rotten Tomatoes and is not expected to draw more than $US2-5 million ($2.8-7 million) at the box office on its opening weekend.

Reviewers have not held back, describing the Brett Ratner-directed film as “unredeemable”, “horrific”, “interminable” and a “shameless infomercial”.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Frank Scheck summarised the documentary thus: “To say that Melania is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies. This is a film that fawns so lavishly over its subject that you feel downright unpatriotic not gushing over it.”

For The Guardian‘s Xan Brooks, it was “dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing”.

“No doubt there is a great documentary to be made about Melania Knauss, the ambitious model from out of Slovenia who married a New York real-estate mogul and then found herself cast in the role of a latter-day Eva Braun, but the horrific Melania emphatically isn’t it.

“It’s one of those rare, unicorn films that doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. I’m not even sure it qualifies as a documentary, exactly, so much as an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, horribly overpriced and ice-cold to the touch and proffered like a medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.”

Vanity Fair‘s Joy Press said the “interminable” two-hour affair was a “work of propaganda”.

It is a “purportedly serious film that plays like a mockumentary,” she said.

“If you were making a movie that parodied the current first lady of the United States, I’m not sure what you’d do differently.”

And this from Buzzfeed‘s Natasha Jokic headlined: I Watched The ‘Melania’ Movie To See If It’s As Bad As You’d Think (It’s Worse).

“Last night, I left an empty chickpea can on my counter. When I came back 30 minutes later, small, black bugs had swarmed the tin and were crawling over my sink,” wrote Jokic.

“I would rather relive that moment a hundred times over than have to watch another minute of the movie Melania.”

And Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman had this to say: “A documentary that never comes to life. It’s a ‘portrait’ of the First Lady of the United States, but it’s so orchestrated and airbrushed and stage-managed that it barely rises to the level of a shameless infomercial.”

Amazon reportedly paid $US40 million ($57.5 million) in a bidding war for the rights and another $US35 million ($50 million) on marketing and the theatrical release.

But many theatres reported selling only a few tickets in major cities like New York.

In Sydney, The Guardian‘s Caitlin Cassidy went to a Hoyts in the Northern Beaches and was one of eight people at the screening in the back corner of a large movie theatre.

“I wonder if the terrible showing is because it’s a weird time of day to watch a movie. But of the five evening screenings of Melania taking place on its opening day at cinemas across Sydney, none have sold more than 16 tickets. One has sold just six,” wrote Cassidy.

“This means I am one of less than 100 people in the city of Sydney, population 5.5 million people, to see Melania’s debut.”

The documentary is about the 20 days leading up to husband Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

It premiered at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, where the Trumps were the final VIPs to walk a charcoal-coloured runway for the event.

“I want to show the audience my life, what it takes to be a first lady again and (the) transition from private citizen back to the White House,” Melania Trump told reporters.

She added that audiences will see how she conducts her businesses and philanthropy, cares for her family and sets up her White House team.

“It’s beautiful, it’s emotional, it’s fashionable, it’s cinematic and I’m very proud of it,” she said.

The documentary, which was produced by AmazonMGM Studios will stream exclusively on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service after its theatrical run in approximately 1600 screens worldwide on Friday, including about 1500 in the United States.

But director Brett Ratner said he would not measure success by how the film performs at the box office.

“It’s a documentary and documentaries historically have not been huge box office smashes,” he told reporters on his way into the premiere. “You can’t expect a documentary to play in theatres.”

The Republican president saw the nearly two-hour film for the first time at a private White House screening over the weekend. He said he thought it was “really great”.

“But it really brings back a glamour that you just don’t see anymore,” Trump said. “Our country can use a little bit of that, right?”

Several members of the president’s cabinet and of congress, along with conservative commentators, attended the showing in the Kennedy Centre’s Opera House on Thursday, US time.

Top Trump administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary ‍Robert F Kennedy Jr, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were there.

Kennedy said the first lady ​has “largely been ​misunderstood”.

“She’s a deep person. She’s deeply concerned about our country,” he said.

Melania Trump has said the film shows her behind-the-scenes life as she juggles being a businessperson, a wife and a mother, as well as the co-ordinator of her family’s move back to the Executive Mansion.

“Everyone wants to know. So here it is,” she said in the movie trailer.

It was unclear how much money Melania Trump stands to earn or what her plans are for any film proceeds.

Experts said it was unusual for a first lady to pursue a project of this kind from the White House — but not unusual for the Trumps.

“As far as I know, she’s the first first lady to be paid a lot of money to have a documentary made about her and it is unprecedented in terms of the Trumps because they are always breaking precedent,” said Katherine Jellison, professor emerita of history at Ohio University.

-with AAP/Reuters