‘Michael’ is Expected to Collect $200 Million in First Weekend, Shaking Off Bad Reviews

“Michael” is a megahit.

In one of the biggest disconnects between reviews and ticket sales in memory — certainly for a non-sequel — the Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” overcame animosity from critics and was on pace to collect more than $200 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Lionsgate, which produced the PG-13 movie, released the box office estimate on Saturday. It based the tally on actual and projected turnout for Wednesday through Sunday.

“If you give audiences what they want, they will come,” Adam Fogelson, chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. Lionsgate is expected to announce plans to make a sequel (or two) in short order.

Mr. Fogelson’s comment was partly a response to critics, who savaged “Michael” for ending its storytelling in 1988 — before the first child molestation accusations against Mr. Jackson surfaced. “Which is kind of like ending an O.J. Simpson biopic with him winning the Heisman Trophy,” the critic Sean Burns wrote in a review on Tuesday.

Box office analysts said that reviews criticizing “Michael” for leaving out the molestation claims (along with related media coverage of the film) almost certainly increased ticket sales, certainly for fans but also for families. “If you didn’t want any of that material and/or didn’t want to be depressed by a Michael Jackson biopic, then those pans read like raves,” the analyst Scott Mendelson wrote in his subscription newsletter on Friday.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/business/media/box-office-michael.html