{"id":664173,"date":"2026-06-29T11:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664173\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T11:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:01:16","slug":"michael-overtakes-oppenheimer-as-highest-grossing-biopic-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664173\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael overtakes Oppenheimer as highest-grossing biopic worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael has clearly been a huge hit with the performer’s many fans around the world, for its study of his childhood and recreations of famous concert performances and music videos.<\/p>\n

Jaafar Jackson, the son of Jermaine Jackson, received particular praise for the portrayal of his uncle. <\/p>\n

But many critics called the film a “whitewash”, with several reviewers saying<\/a> it depicted a “sanitised” version of his life and career.<\/p>\n

This was mostly as it does not address the sexual abuse allegations against the late singer, after a historic non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prompted some footage referencing them to be scrapped.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter said the feature “delivers for lifelong fans who cherish the music”, but the Telegraph noted that it “refuses to address the elephant in the room”. The Independent described it as a “ghoulish, soulless cash grab”.<\/p>\n

But the poor reviews did not deter fans – who generally rated it far higher than the critics did, according to review aggregator websites such as Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n

Michael is financially backed by the late superstar’s estate and uses his original vocals for the musical numbers, which dominate the film.<\/p>\n

Lionsgate is expected to release at least one more film about Jackson’s life, according to US publication Variety, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael has clearly been a huge hit with the performer’s many fans around the world, for its study…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-664173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664173","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=664173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}