Trump's campaign sent distributors a cease-and-desist letter demanding they drop 'The Apprentice,' calling it foreign election interference
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What happened
After "The Apprentice," a biopic starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, an attorney for Trump's 2024 campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers demanding they "cease and desist from all marketing, distribution, and publication of the Movie," calling it "pure malicious defamation" and "direct foreign interference in America's elections." Major U.S. studios and streamers declined to acquire the film for distribution. Briarcliff Entertainment acquired U.S. rights at the last minute, leaving about five weeks to mount a release and marketing campaign, funded partly through a Kickstarter that raised over $300,000, for an October 11, 2024 domestic theatrical release in 1,740 theaters. The compressed timeline left little room for a conventional marketing push; despite strong reviews (83% on Rotten Tomatoes), the film grossed only $9.16 million worldwide ($4.0 million domestic) against a $16 million budget. The retaliation did not stop the film from reaching theaters, but the forced last-minute distribution deal is widely cited as a major factor in its weak commercial performance.
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