Michael Biopic Breaks Records with $217M Global Opening Despite Controversy and Mixed Reviews

The big-budget Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” has overcome bad reviews and a difficult production to earn $97 million in North America in its opening weekend. This helped the film reach a total of $217 million worldwide.

This makes it the biggest opening ever for a biopic. The film earned $120.4 million internationally and $97 million in the US, beating Oppenheimer ($180.4 million opening) and Bohemian Rhapsody ($124 million opening).

The movie has now been released in most countries, except Japan, where it will open in June.

Critics have said the film avoids some controversial parts of Michael Jackson’s life. However, audiences liked it much more. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has 38% from critics but 97% from audiences.

Early predictions estimated the US opening at around $50 million, later raised to $70 million—but the film exceeded expectations.

Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson said there was strong interest from many types of audiences.

However, the film is controversial because of allegations against Michael Jackson. He died in 2009 at the age of 50. He faced accusations of child abuse, which he denied. He was also acquitted in his 2005 trial.

Some of Jackson’s family members did not support the film. His sister Janet Jackson is not involved, and his daughter Paris called it “fantasy land.”

The film also had production problems. After filming ended, producers found that the third part of the movie included a legal issue involving Jordan Chandler, who accused Jackson in the 1990s. Because of a legal settlement, his story could not be shown.

As a result, large parts of the movie were removed, and expensive reshoots costing up to $50 million were done. The story was changed to end in 1988, before any accusations.

The total cost of the movie is about $200 million. To reduce costs, international rights were sold to Universal. A sequel is already planned.

Director Antoine Fuqua said he wants to direct the sequel himself.

Some unused footage may be used later in future films.

Plans for the movie started in 2022, after the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which raised allegations against Jackson.

The director of that documentary, Dan Reed, said it is disturbing that people ignore these allegations.

Meanwhile, Bohemian Rhapsody is still the highest-grossing music biopic ($910 million), while Oppenheimer is the highest-grossing overall biopic ($975 million).