$97 million at the domestic box office. $217 million worldwide. The biggest opening weekend for any biopic in cinema history. And not a single frame of it addresses the child sexual abuse allegations that followed Michael Jackson for the last two decades of his life.

“Michael,” directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in his acting debut, arrived in theaters this weekend as an instant blockbuster. Its domestic haul crushed the previous biopic record held by “Straight Outta Compton” ($60 million in 2015) and surpassed even “Oppenheimer’s” $82.4 million debut, according to figures reported by Variety and Forbes. It ranks as the second-biggest opening of 2026, trailing only “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

Critics despised it. The BBC called it “a bland and barely competent daytime TV movie” and awarded it one star. Only 38 percent of reviews aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes were positive. Audiences disagreed, emphatically: they gave it a 94 percent approval rating on the same platform and an A-minus on CinemaScore exit polls.

The Film That Was Rewritten at the Last Minute

This wasn’t always going to be a sanitized portrait. When producer Graham King — who previously shepherded “Bohemian Rhapsody” to $910 million and four Oscars — secured the rights in 2019, Deadline reported the film would span Jackson’s “entire life” and that “the complexity of Jackson’s life is well known and will not be ignored.”

The original screenplay by John Logan (“Gladiator,” “Skyfall”) addressed the 1993 child sexual abuse allegations made by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler. But during post-production, lawyers discovered that the 1994 settlement between Jackson and Chandler barred either party from dramatizing the case in film or television. The third act was scrapped.

Cast and crew reassembled for 22 days of reshoots — at a cost reported between $15 million (The Independent) and $50 million (Forbes) — and the film was restructured to end in 1988, during the Bad tour. The release date was pushed back a year.

A Family Divided

Jackson’s daughter Paris publicly distanced herself last September, writing on social media that “a big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy.” She said she provided notes on an early draft but moved on when they went unaddressed.

Janet Jackson was reportedly “very critical” at a private family screening, according to TMZ and Page Six. She is not depicted in the film at all. Jackson’s nephew Taj pushed back on critics: “Sorry media, u don’t get to control the narrative anymore of who Michael Jackson truly was.”

The Nostalgia Formula

With a reported budget approaching $200 million, split between Lionsgate, Universal, and the Michael Jackson estate, “Michael” needed a massive debut. It got one. Imax screenings alone contributed $13.8 million in North America — a record for a musical biopic — as audiences turned out for concert recreations of “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” and “Beat It.”

David A. Gross, who publishes the FranchiseRe box office newsletter, noted the dynamic plainly: critics felt the film “avoids the complicated parts of the performer’s life,” while audiences treated it as “a feel good, nostalgic appreciation.”

Lionsgate is reportedly planning at least one sequel. Colman Domingo, who plays Joe Jackson, hinted at this on NBC’s Today, saying the film covers “the making of Michael” and that “there’s a possibility of it being a Part 2.”

The commercial logic is hard to argue with. Audiences want to celebrate their heroes, not interrogate them, and $217 million in a single weekend says so. Whether that makes for honest cinema is a different question — one that clearly isn’t hurting ticket sales.

Sources