The Michael Jackson biopic Michael shattered the all-time box office record for a music biopic with a $97 million opening weekend in American and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Lionsgate film also collected $120.4 million overseas for a $217.4 million global opening—a new high for the genre—despite poor critical reviews, a troubled production that required $50 million in reshoots, and ongoing controversy surrounding Jackson’s legacy.
The result far exceeded studio projections and signals strong audience demand for the King of Pop more than 17 years after his death.
Why It Matters
Michael was an audacious bet by Lionsgate on an extraordinarily popular but deeply controversial figure. Jackson, who died in 2009 at age 50, has had his reputation marred by allegations of sexual abuse of children. He was acquitted in his sole criminal trial in 2005, and his estate has maintained his innocence—though Jackson acknowledged sharing a bedroom with other people’s children.
The film’s massive opening, despite a 38 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, suggests audiences are willing to separate the music from the allegations, at least when the film itself avoids them. A sequel is already in development, and Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson said a third film is “not inconceivable.”
What To Know
Michael far surpassed previous music biopic top performers, beating Straight Outta Compton ($60.2 million in 2015) and Bohemian Rhapsody ($51 million in 2018). Going into the weekend, Lionsgate projected an opening closer to $70 million—and a few weeks earlier, estimates were as low as $50 million.
“From the beginning, all of the signals were that something like this was possible,” Fogelson said. “We were seeing massive engagement with every conceivable audience segment that you could identify.”
The production was unusually rocky. After shooting was completed, producers realized the third act—which focused on accusations from Jordan Chandler, then 13 years old, whom Jackson paid $23 million in a 1994 settlement—could not appear in the film. The terms of that settlement barred the Jackson estate from ever mentioning Chandler in a movie. A huge chunk of the film had to be cut, with reshoots costing as much as $50 million done at the estate’s expense. Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan reworked the film to conclude in 1988, before any accusations were made.
“I would take issue with the idea that we as a studio or as filmmakers were running around in a panic,” Fogelson said. “It was definitely a unique and challenging circumstance to figure out how to work through. But it created an opportunity to tell more story than any one film could possibly contain.”
The total production cost was close to $200 million. To defray costs, Lionsgate sold international distribution rights to Universal.
Family Divided Over the Film
Some members of the Jackson family opposed the project. Janet Jackson was uninvolved and does not appear in the film while Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris called it “fantasy land.”
However, Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson was cast to play his uncle, and producer Graham King—who also produced Bohemian Rhapsody—pushed forward with the project despite the controversy surrounding Leaving Neverland, the 2019 documentary about Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of children.
Critics have slammed the movie for glossing over inconvenient aspects of Jackson’s life, but audiences were far more enthusiastic, awarding the film an “A-” CinemaScore. Fogelson defended the creative choice. “The portion of Michael’s life that this story tells couldn’t have gotten into those allegations because the allegations themselves hadn’t happened in the period this movie existed,” he said. “I think the audience is judging it on those terms.”
“It’s only human nature to enjoy yourself at the movie theater,” Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Comscore, said. He added that Michael was “perfectly positioned ahead of the start of the summer movie season which launches later this week with The Devil Wears Prada 2 that is also poised to outpace even the most generous opening weekend projections.”
The opening adds to a strong spring for Hollywood, boosted by hits like Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary and Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. After three weeks at number one, the Mario sequel slid to second place with $21.2 million, bringing its four-week domestic total to $386.5 million and global haul to $445 million. Project Hail Mary surged past $600 million worldwide in its sixth weekend, with $305.3 million domestic and $613.3 million globally.
The full top 10 by domestic box office for the weekend, according to Comscore: Michael ($97 million); The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($21.2 million); Project Hail Mary ($13.2 million); Lee Cronin’s The Mummy ($5.6 million); The Drama ($2.6 million); Hoppers ($1.9 million); You, Me & Tuscany ($1.5 million); Over Your Dead Body ($1.4 million); Mother Mary ($1.2 million); and American Youngboy ($1.2 million).
Reporting from the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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