Legal roadblocks forced "Michael" into a pricey reshoot. After “Michael” moonwalked its way into box office glory, it’s all but assured that the King of Pop will get a sequel. However, it remains to be seen how Lionsgate will get around some of the legal issues that forced it to rework the film’s entire third act.
But for now, Lionsgate is taking a well earned victory lap with a record opening for a biopic — despite the long controversy that has followed the film’s production, and a string of negative critical reviews.
“This was a biopic that Lionsgate uniquely had the courage to take on. It’s not like this was a book that Lionsgate owned,” an enthusiastic Lionsgate motion picture chair Adam Fogelson told Page Six Hollywood yesterday. “It’s always exciting when you have a blockbuster hit, but when you have a blockbuster hit on something that many people didn’t think was possible, it’s particularly gratifying.”
Adam Fogelson, bottom left, with the cast and crew of “Michael.” Getty Images for Lionsgate Those that saw the film, which covers Jackson’s life between 1966 and 1988, were left with a title card reading, “His story will continue.” Fogelson said they’ve been preparing for a potential sequel for months, but wanted to first see how fans reacted. Their answer was unmistakable.
“We will do our work over the next couple of weeks to figure out exactly what the plan is. We do have probably 30% of a second film from footage that we already shot, and we will work with all the talent and try to let everyone know what our plan is in the next couple of weeks.”
As anyone who has followed Jackson’s career knows, the later part of his life featured significant controversy, and was reportedly initially going to be part of this weekend’s movie, which was said to have dealt with the child sex abuse accusations head on. Unfortunately, the Jackson Estate, which was backing the film, overlooked a settlement with one of the accusers, Jordan Chandler, which said he could not be depicted or mentioned in any film.
After “Michael” moonwalked its way into box office stardom, it’s all but assured that the King of Pop will get the sequel treatment. ©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection That alone makes telling this story in a sequel legally tenuous. But that’s a problem for another day. The film was a massive success, so Lionsgate will be incentivized to figure it out.
From director Antoine Fuqua, “Michael” drew an estimated $97 million domestically and $120.4 million internationally (where the film was distributed by Universal Pictures International), coming together for a whopping $217.4 million global take.
It was the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time for any biopic (musical or otherwise), beating out “Oppenheimer” and “Straight Outta Compton.”
“I have complete respect for the job that critics have to do, and I can’t speak to what lens any particular critic was looking at the movie through,” Fogelson says diplomatically. “Even when some of the negative reviews came out, if you were spending any time on social media, you were seeing a lot of people – and they were not plants! – with passionate, euphoric joy and support for the movie they had just seen, and they were able to carry the day.”
