'Michael' biopic breaks records with $217 million global opening

Michael, the first officially authorized biopic about Michael Jackson, has overcome poor reviews and a difficult production process to debut with $97 million in theaters across the US and Canada, according to studio estimates, setting a new record opening for music biopics.

Co-produced by the Jackson estate, Michael significantly outperformed expectations (which had been as high as $70 million) and easily surpassed earlier leading music biopic openings such as Straight Outta Compton ($60.1 million in 2015) and Bohemian Rhapsody ($51 million in 2018), News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Internationally, the film also performed strongly, earning $120.4 million overseas, bringing its worldwide opening total to $217.4 million — the highest global debut ever for a music biopic.

“From the beginning, all of the signals were that something like this was possible,” the Lionsgate chairman, Adam Fogelson, told Associated Press. “We were seeing massive engagement with every conceivable audience segment that you could identify.”

The film has now been released in most markets around the world, with one notable exception being Japan, where it is scheduled to open in June.

Michael has a production budget close to $200 million, making it one of the most expensive biopics ever made. Given its strong opening weekend, there is a real possibility it could surpass Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, which previously earned $910 million globally.

Despite its box office success, the film has received overwhelmingly negative reviews. Some members of the Jackson family have also spoken out against it, most notably Michael Jackson’s sister Janet Jackson and his daughter Paris, who described it as “fantasy land”.

In our review, we described Michael as a “drama-free, formulaic and estate-controlled excuse to sell more albums” and as “sanitized to the point of being translucent”.

“Whatever you may think of the man behind the icon and even if you’re generous enough to give this project the benefit of the doubt by foolishly believing that the darker aspects of Jackson’s life could be explored in a planned second chapter (teased at the end with the card ‘His story continues’), Michael still only functions as an insultingly blatant hagiography. It removes everything from his early life story that could be deemed contentious, including allegations of violent abuse by his father Joe (Colman Domingo), his early encounters with sex, or his growing body dysmorphia linked to the toll celebrity and trauma took on him.”

“The Michael movie is coming out and it’s getting a lot of promotion and there’s billboards and commercials and people praising Michael,” he said in a video shared with Rolling Stone. “It can be triggering for survivors who have their own Michael in their lives, whether it’s the priest who’s close to God or the sports coach who’s just helping the kids or the step-parent who’s supporting the family,” he added. “Our abusers are praised sometimes, even after we come out and tell the truth.”

“I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone and that there are other survivors out there that understand what you’re going through and that are there with you. And that if you’re feeling all the feels, then lean into people that are close to you, lean into people that support you and that give you love, and know that you’re not alone,” he continued.

He went on to say: “Telling the truth and telling what happened is a good thing, and that it’s a part of your healing.”

Reed has also questioned why the new biopic failed to acknowledge the abuse allegations against Jackson.

“It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people just don’t care,” he said. “I think a lot of people just love his music and turn a deaf ear. And short of having actual video evidence of Michael Jackson engaged in sexual intercourse with a seven-year-old child, I don’t know what would be sufficient to change these people’s minds.”

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev