The Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” shattered box office records in its opening weekend, grossing $218. 8 million globally—nearly triple the previous record for a music biopic. The film, made with the cooperation of the Jackson estate, covers Jackson’s early life through his 1979 “Off the Wall” era and does not address the child sexual abuse allegations that have long surrounded him. Critics panned the film, with Rotten Tomatoes scores ranging from 27 to 39 percent approval among critics.
Audiences, however, gave it a 97 percent approval rating, creating one of the largest gaps between critical and audience reception in the site’s history. But acritical detail behind the film’s omissions has largely been overlooked
Director Antoine Fuqua confirmed to The New Yorker that the film originally opened with the 1993 police raid on Neverland Ranch and included the allegations in its screenplay. Footage for that scene was shot. However, lawyers for the Jackson estate, who also served as producers, discovered a clause buried in the 1994 civil settlement with the Chandler family.
That clause legally barred Jordan Chandler, the accuser, from ever being depicted or mentioned in any film, ever. This forced 22 emergency days of reshoots, amoved production from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, and added an estimated $10 to $15 million to a budget that was already at $155 million. Therelease was pushed back a full year, from April 2025 to April 2026. Critics were thus punishing a film for omitting content it was legally forbidden from including
Months before the film’s release, podcaster Joe Rogan had already articulated a theory about Jackson that resonated widely.
In October 2025, on his show, he argued that Jackson’s romantic music came entirely from fantasy, not real life, because Jackson was so cut off from normal human experience that his art became a projection of a world he desperately wanted but never had. Rogan also referenced claims by Jackson’s doctor about the singer’s father, and drew parallels to the idea of using puberty blockers to preserve a young performer’s voice. He had previously, in 2019, called Jackson“completely unrepeatable” as an artist
When the official trailer dropped in February 2026, it drew 30 million views in its first six hours and 116 million views worldwide—the most watched trailer for any music biopic ever. The film’s opening weekend saw $97.
2 million domestically and $121. 6 million internationally, nearly $140 million more than the previous biopic opening record held by“Oppenheimer,” which opened to $80 million. Lionsgate had privately hoped for $70 million domestically; the film surpassed that by Friday night alone
The critical backlash was swift, with many reviewers arguing the film was sanitized and“really bad” for skirting over incidents in Jackson’s childhood and life. One prominent Jackson biographer told The Hollywood Reporter thatthe critical response seemed“disingenuous”because critics were penalizing the film for a legal reality outside the filmmakers’ control.
One Vulture critic dismissed fan anger, suggesting those upset about the score weren’t engaging with criticism, saying,“This isn’t art for them, it’s sports. ” Fans fired back across X and Reddit, accusing critics of letting their personal opinions of Jackson the person contaminate their reviews of the film
Rogan placed the controversy in a broader context, arguing that coordinated critic scores in the low-30s range on a film that 97 percent of audiences loved exemplified the groupthink he had long criticized. He noted that when everyone in a place shares the same politics, something has gone wrong. In December 2025, his podcast, the most listened-to in the world, was shut out of the Golden Globes’ best podcast category by the same cultural class he argued now held sway over outlets like Rotten Tomatoes
Several specific figures emerged in opposition to the film.
Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris, publicly called the biopic a“fantasy”that“panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom”before its release. Sources told Radar Online thatthe film could serve as a financial lifeline for Jackson’s struggling extended family members, making her public attack effectively an attempt to damage something her own family’s financial future depended on. Actor Coleman Domingo, who plays Joe Jackson, told the press that both Prince and Paris were involved in the project. Paris immediately and publicly denied this, clashing directly with Domingo, saying she had“0% involvement”and had only read an early draft of the script before moving on.
Domingo stood by his statement, and the contradiction was never publicly resolved
Janet Jackson was asked to be portrayed in the film and declined. LaToya Jackson confirmed this to Variety, saying,“She was asked and she kindly declined. ” A source put it more bluntly, suggesting Janet was“insanely jealous”and that her career was struggling. By choosing to erase herself from her own brother’s story, the only person that decision hurt, the source argued, was Janet herself
The film’s commercial dominance was particularly evident against its competition.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2,” a highly anticipated sequel with a loyal built-in audience, opened May 1st, 2026, but“Michael” reclaimed the number one spot in its fourth weekend, making the sequel’s opening momentum look like a warm-up act. Ryan Gosling’s sci-fi epic“Project Hail Mary,” then the dominant film of early 2026 with over$650 million worldwide, was bypassed by“Michael” in weekly earnings and total audience engagement. Disney and Pixar’s“Hoppers,” which had held eight consecutive weeks in the top 10, became a footnote once“Michael” entered the conversation
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the previous champion of music biopics, opened to $51 million and built slowly to$910 million total. “Michael” nearly doubled that film’s entire opening weekend in a single weekend.
Baz Luhrmann’s“Elvis,” long considered the benchmark for music biopics, grossed $288 million globally across its entire run—“Michael”surpassed that total with room to spare
By its fourth weekend,“Michael” crossed $700 million worldwide, triggering the sequel green-light condition Lionsgate had built into its deal from the start. The sequel will cover the“Thriller”years, the Neverland accusations, and Jackson’s death in 2009—the parts that couldn’t be in part one legally. That story, observers noted, cannot be sanitized, meaning every critic who called this film a cover-up is about to get an answer in the next installment
