Michelle Obama's 2020 Netflix documentary "Becoming" has roared back into the spotlight, posting a massive viewership surge on the platform the same weekend Melania Trump's big-screen documentary "Melania" opened in theaters.

Entertainment analytics firm Luminate reported that "Becoming" recorded about 47.5 million minutes viewed in the United States over the Jan. 30–Feb. 1 weekend, a jump of more than 13,000 percent compared with roughly 354,000 minutes the previous weekend.

That translates to just over 480,000 total streams during the weekend, far above the few hundred to a few thousand daily views the documentary had been drawing through January. The renewed spike was strong enough to push the nearly six-year-old film back into Netflix's U.S. Top 10 list, according to The Guardian.

The timing lines up with the theatrical debut of "Melania," an Amazon MGM documentary about current first lady Melania Trump that has stirred criticism over its tone and timing.

While "Melania" cost an estimated $40 million to acquire and has been widely panned as propaganda, it opened to about $7 million at the box office amid protests, review-bombing, and harsh reviews from major outlets.

Online, the backlash to "Melania" appears to have fueled a kind of counter-movement in support of Obama's story. Across TikTok, X, and Threads, users urged coordinated streaming of "Becoming," sharing posts that encouraged people to rewatch the film and push it up Netflix's rankings, The Hill reported.

Advocates framed the campaign as both a protest against "Melania" and a celebration of Obama's memoir-based documentary, which follows her 2018 book tour and reflects on her years as first lady.

The viewership wave is also helping to revive interest in Obama's bestselling memoir, which has already sold more than 10 million copies and continues to draw readers between 2023 and 2025, as per Deadline.

Tags
Michelle Obama, Melania trump, Netflix, Documentary