Michael Jackson biopic's massive box-office success proves his staying power despite controversy

By Lukas I. Alpert

The film drew $217 million worldwide through Saturday during its opening weekend despite withering reviews and much debate about what the movie left out

Strong interest in Michael Jackson appears to continue unabated as a biopic on his music and life smashed box-office expectations despite harsh reviews and years of sex-abuse allegations against him.

It's been nearly 17 years since Michael Jackson died, but his star power remains undimmed.

Despite years of controversy surrounding allegations of child sexual abuse, the King of Pop's legions of fans turned out in droves to see a new biopic on his life and music.

The film, titled simply "Michael" brought in $97 million domestically through Saturday night on its opening weekend, and $217 million worldwide.

Lionsgate (LION), the studio that produced and distributed the film, had estimated box-office receipts of between $90 million and $100 million in the U.S., and $200 million worldwide, so the biopic is on target to smash through those projections by the end of Sunday.

That would give the film the second-highest domestic opening of 2026, following "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" at $131 million earlier this month, and ahead of ""Project Hail Mary" at $80 million in March.

The success of "Michael" defied brutal reviews which mostly complained that the film focused too closely on the artist's music while lacking any meaningful insight and leaving out many details - most notably the allegations of sex abuse later in his life.

According to movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored just 38% on its Tomatometer, which measures critics' reviews. Underscoring how little that meant, the film scored 97% on the Popcornmeter, which tallies actual viewers' response.

"If you give audiences what they want, they will come," Adam Fogelson, chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said in a statement to the New York Times, which reported that the studio is planning to make a sequel.

Much of the criticism of the film was based on the decision to end the story in 1988, when Jackson was at the peak of his fame but before the molestation allegations that would dog him later in his life, and which he denied. Not featured was the sex-abuse trial in which he was acquitted in 2005, or his later death in 2009 from an overdose of operating-room anesthetic.

The film's producers said they had initially included scenes about the allegations but later had to remove them after realizing that a settlement Jackson had reached with one of his accusers included clauses that did not allow his estate to capitalize in any way on the details of the case. That set the film back an entire year.

So instead, Jackson's family - who largely backed the film - producer Graham King and director Antoine Fuqua opted to refocus the film more squarely on his music, effectively turning it into a jukebox musical. That followed the pattern of King's previous success with 2018's "Bohemian Rhapsody," the musical biopic of the band Queen, that grossed $217 million domestically and $910 million worldwide.

The smash success of "Michael" shook off the revelations from the 2019 HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland," which revisited the abuse allegations against Jackson and seemed poised to reshape his legacy.

The four-part series came out shortly after the release of "Surviving R. Kelly," a documentary that explored child sex-abuse claims against the singer and led to criminal charges against Kelly for which he was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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04-26-26 1515ET