{"id":683313,"date":"2026-05-20T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683313\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:22:09","slug":"how-michael-became-a-blockbuster-from-lionsgates-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683313\/","title":{"rendered":"How Michael Became a Blockbuster From Lionsgate’s Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tInstagram was one of the early clues that \u201cMichael<\/a>\u201d was destined for blockbuster status. Nowadays, studios often secure a movie\u2019s social media handles years before launching the marketing campaign. After Lionsgate<\/a> claimed @michaelmovie for its Michael Jackson biopic, executives noticed the account had racked up 20,000 followers before the studio shared a single poster or trailer or even added a profile picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never seen numbers like that in advance of any kind of publication of materials. In fact, the accounts were private,\u201d recalls Briana McElroy, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group\u2019s executive VP of digital marketing. \u201cSomething special was happening.\u201d <\/p>\n

After a yearslong, $60 million marketing campaign, \u201cMichael\u201d arrived in theaters an instant smash<\/a>. With $97 million domestically and $217 million globally,\u00a0the movie shattered the opening weekend record for musical biopics, supplanting the benchmark set by 2015\u2019s \u201cStraight\u00a0Outta\u00a0Compton\u201d ($60 million). Weeks later, the movie remains a powerhouse with $283 million in North America and $706 million worldwide. Driven by word of mouth and repeat viewings, ticket sales are expected to eclipse $900 million and potentially near $1 billion by the end of the movie\u2019s run. That would put \u201cMichael\u201d in contention with 2018\u2019s Queen sensation \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d ($911 million) as the biggest musical biopic in history. <\/p>\n

Sure, \u201cMichael\u201d is about the King of Pop, one of the most famous people ever to live. Yet box office glory was far from guaranteed. Major studios didn\u2019t even want to bid on the rights, believing the film wasn\u2019t worth the potential PR headache. Jackson, who died in 2009, became a divisive cultural figure after he was accused of sexually abusing children for decades. (He denied the accusations.) Then the commercial prospects of \u201cMichael\u201d got shakier after a late-stage discovery by the singer\u2019s estate, a producer on the film. It found a legal clause that necessitated a complete overhaul of the third act<\/a>, delaying the release a year and extending the carefully crafted marketing campaign. <\/p>\n

Since \u201cMichael\u201d omits the most controversial aspects of Jackson\u2019s life, Lionsgate was able to lean into the film\u2019s crowd-pleasing elements, including meticulous re-creations of concert performances and music videos. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the movie charts the singer\u2019s early days in the Jackson 5 through the 1988 \u201cBad\u201d tour, which established Jackson as one of the biggest entertainers on the planet. <\/p>\n

Unlike, say, \u201cBetter Man,\u201d Paramount\u2019s musical biopic about British performer Robbie Williams, Lionsgate didn\u2019t have to introduce Jackson to the masses. (A bigger challenge was clarifying that \u201cMichael\u201d wasn\u2019t a documentary.) Studio executives describe a \u201cfan-forward\u201d approach to marketing, with an emphasis on communal experiences. And the more shareable on TikTok, the better. <\/p>\n

\u201cCampaigns need to feel like events,\u201d says Lionsgate Motion Picture Group\u2019s newly appointed marketing chief Amanda Kozlowski. \u201cThat\u2019s the way you reinforce the movie is an event and it\u2019s worth taking the time to make a plan and spend not-an-inconsiderable amount of money to go to the theater.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those experience-heavy efforts included billboards with live DJs and \u201cDon\u2019t Walk, Moonwalk\u201d flash mobs in which performers took over busy intersections in 20 global cities. Views of the dancers, as they moved and grooved across the street while cars were stopped at red lights,\u00a0generated more than 36.1 million views\u00a0on social platforms.\u00a0The studio also created a Jackson hologram that appeared in 13 theaters and 40 malls, and allowed audiences to learn legendary dance moves from the man himself \u2014 with help from his nephew and on-screen surrogate Jaafar Jackson. Another centerpiece was partnering with marching bands at historically Black colleges and universities, including Florida A&M University, Jackson State University, and Southern University, to spotlight Jackson\u2019s music for younger generations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNostalgia was key for older fans. The studio timed promotional stunts to coincide with landmark moments in Jackson\u2019s career, including his 1993 Super Bowl halftime show and Motown 25th-anniversary performance, where the Moonwalk was born. Lionsgate also recruited Bill Bellamy, former VJ for MTV News, where the \u201cBillie Jean\u201d and \u201cThriller\u201d music videos premiered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have an artist of this scale, there\u2019s a collective sense-memory that holds power for people,\u201d Kozlowski says. \u201cWe started going back to the moments we all remembered and set out to see how we could re-create or tap into them.\u201d <\/p>\n

As Lionsgate\u2019s execs looked more closely at social media followers, they expected a lot of them to be Gen Xers and elder millennials. They were surprised to see that so many were Gen Z, which reinforced the focus on live experiences. <\/p>\n

\u201cGen Z is all about community. This is what I\u2019m going to wear when I see the \u2018Michael\u2019 movie,\u201d McElroy says. \u201cWe wanted to give people the opportunity to share all of that excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instagram was one of the early clues that \u201cMichael\u201d was destined for blockbuster status. Nowadays, studios often secure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,18030,19927,344],"class_list":["post-683313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-lionsgate","tag-michael","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}