{"id":552234,"date":"2026-04-26T21:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552234\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:02:11","slug":"michael-jackson-biopic-sets-new-box-office-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552234\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson biopic sets new box office record"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The controversial Michael Jackson biopic Michael<\/a> has banked $97 million at the domestic box office and $217 million globally on its opening weekend, setting a new record for a music biopic. <\/a><\/p>\n

The impressive performance takes the film past the previous record holder, the 2015 N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton,<\/a> which made $60 million domestically on its opening weekend.<\/p>\n

It also exceeds the box-office takings of the 2018 Queen movie <\/a>Bohemian Rhapsody<\/a>, which made only $51 million on its opening weekend but went on to rake in a total of $910 million worldwide before it left cinemas.<\/p>\n

2022\u2019s Elvis made just over $31 million domestically on its opening weekend, while 2019\u2019s Elton John film Rocketman exceeded $25 million, 2005 Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line made $22 million and 2004 Ray Charles biopic Ray opened to $20 million.<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s strong start has also given it the second biggest U.S. opening weekend of the year, behind only The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"JaafarJaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in ‘Michael’ (Lionsgate)<\/p>\n

The musical film has been heavily criticized by reviewers, many of whom claimed that the film \u201cwhitewashed\u201d Jackson\u2019s legacy<\/a> by ending its story in 1988, years before multiple child sexual abuse allegations against the singer emerged.<\/p>\n

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critics\u2019 score of just 38 percent<\/a> at the time of writing \u2013 a \u201cRotten\u201d rating indicating that the majority of critics gave negative reviews.<\/p>\n

However, the audience score, voted on by members of the public, indicates a resoundingly positive reception, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting a 97 percent \u201cFresh\u201d rating.<\/p>\n

While it is possible for these numbers to be manipulated in a process known as \u201creview bombing,\u201d other audience feedback platforms suggest that the controversial film has received a warm welcome among the general public.<\/p>\n

On IMDB, the film, directed by Training Day\u2019s Antoine Fuqua, has an aggregate rating of 7.6 out of 10. The film-based social media site Letterboxd, meanwhile, has seen the movie earn an average rating of 3.6 stars out of 5, with most ratings between 4 and 5 stars.<\/p>\n

In a one-star review of Michael for The Independent<\/a>, critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: \u201cThe draw of Michael, Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King\u2019s turn at the life of the King of Pop, isn\u2019t the desire to understand Jackson as a person or as an artist, or to grapple with the weight of his legacy as one of the most pivotal cultural figures of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt exists to be consumed as an act of allegiance, as proof of fandom. It resists story in favor of content, in making sure fans see what they expect to see, whether that be the \u2018Thriller\u2019 video or \u2018Bad\u2019 performed live at Wembley in 1988.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-552234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}