Michael Jackson biopic breaks all music biopic records with $217 million global opening despite bad reviews

Nobody expected $217 million. The studio was hoping for $70 million.

Michael, the first officially authorized biopic of Michael Jackson, opened to $97 million in US and Canadian theaters over the weekend of April 25-27, and $120.4 million across 82 international markets, for a global total of $217.4 million. That number shatters the previous opening weekend record for a music biopic, which belonged to Straight Outta Compton at $60.1 million in 2015, and dwarfs Bohemian Rhapsody's $51 million 2018 debut.

Adam Fogelson, chairman of Lionsgate, which co-produced the film alongside Universal and the Michael Jackson estate, told the Associated Press the signals were there all along. "We were seeing massive engagement with every conceivable audience segment that you could identify," he said.

Director Antoine Fuqua and producer Graham King delivered a film that audiences are willing to see and critics are largely unwilling to praise. On Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of critics' reviews are positive, with a Metacritic score of 39 out of 100. Audiences, however, gave it an A- on CinemaScore. That disconnect between critical reception and commercial performance mirrors what happened with Bohemian Rhapsody, which opened to mixed reviews and eventually grossed $910 million worldwide. Michael needs to reach approximately $500 million just to break even, given a production budget now estimated at close to $200 million.

The path to that budget was not smooth. The film's original third act dramatized Jackson's 1993 child molestation lawsuit and his $23 million settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler, then 13 years old. Producers discovered after principal photography was complete that the settlement included a clause barring the Jackson estate from ever depicting or mentioning Chandler in film or television. The third act was cut and reshot at an estimated cost of $50 million, paid by the estate. Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan restructured the film to end in 1988, during the Bad world tour, before any accusations were made against Jackson.

That decision has drawn pointed criticism. James Safechuck, who alleged in Dan Reed's 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland that he was sexually abused by Jackson as a child, issued a statement to Rolling Stone urging survivors not to be destabilized by the film's release and its promotional reach. Reed, the documentary's director, questioned publicly how any authentic account of Jackson's life could avoid acknowledging that Jackson faced serious accusations of being a child molester. Several critics noted the film's ending cuts off the story at the precise moment Jackson's most controversial years begin.

Jackson's sister Janet, his daughter Paris, and siblings Randy and Rebbie are not in the film. Paris, who called an early script "fantasy land" and described the project as taking place in "sugar-coated" territory, has not endorsed it. Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson plays the lead in his acting debut. Critics who praised the film at all tended to single out Jaafar Jackson's physical performance, particularly his recreation of Jackson's stage presence and movements.

Bohemian Rhapsody remains the all-time highest-grossing music biopic at $910 million worldwide. Michael, if ticket sales hold, is expected to reach at least $700 million, which would rank it among Lionsgate's biggest films of all time and place it second on the all-time music biopic list. A sequel has been teased, with a title card at the film's end reading: "His story continues."

What that sequel addresses, and whether it can ignore what the first film chose not to show, remains the central question hanging over the franchise.