In his director's statement, von Trier wrote that he had started to regret having made such a polished film, but that he hoped it would contain some flaws which would make it interesting:
"I desired to dive headlong into the abyss of German romanticism ... But is that not just another way of expressing defeat? Defeat to the lowest of cinematic common denominators? Romance is abused in all sorts of endlessly dull ways in mainstream products."[24]
The premiere took place at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where Melancholia was screened in competition on 18 May.[25] The press conference after the screening gained considerable publicity. The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough wrote that "Von Trier has never been very P.C. and his Cannes press conferences always play like a dark stand-up routine, but at the Melancholia press conference he took it to another level, tossing a grenade into any sense of public decorum."[26] Von Trier first joked about working on a hardcore pornographic film that would star Dunst and Gainsbourg.[27] When asked about the relation between the influences of German Romanticism in Melancholia and von Trier's own German heritage, the director brought up that he had been raised believing his biological father was a Jew, only to learn as an adult that his actual father was a German. He then made jokes about Jews and Nazis, said he understood Adolf Hitler and admired the work of architect Albert Speer, and jokingly announced that he was a Nazi.[26][28] The Cannes Film Festival issued an official apology for the remarks the same day and clarified that von Trier is not a Nazi or an anti-Semite, then declared the director "persona non grata" the following day.[29][30] This meant he was not allowed to go within 100 meters of the Festival Palace, but he did remain in Cannes and continued to give promotional interviews.[31]
On 26 May 2011, the film was released in Denmark through Nordisk Film.[17] Launched on 57 screens, the film entered the box-office chart as number three.[32] A total of 50,000 tickets were eventually sold in Denmark.[33] It was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 30 September, in Germany on 6 October and in Italy on 21 October.[34] Magnolia Pictures acquired the distribution rights for North America and it was released on 11 November, with a pre-theatrical release on 13 October as a rental through such Direct TV vendors as Vudu and Amazon.[34][35] Madman Entertainment bought the rights for Australia and New Zealand.[36]
