Critics and the bad reviews be damned, people showed up in droves to see Michael. Antoine Fuqua’s biopic opened with a massive $13M in Thursday night previews, with projections of a $80M-$90M+ weekend. If that happens, it’ll be the highest opening ever for a musical biopic, easily surpassing Straight Outta Compton‘s $60M debut in 2015, and the $50M by Bohemian Rhapsody, which featured Best Actor winner Rami Malek. Could we end up seeing similar accolades for Jaafar Jackson?
Okay, maybe not for that last question, but one never knows. It’s clear that audiences and critics were miles apart on this one. The film currently holds a 40% “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, on the other hand, have given the film a 96% “fresh” score.
Chances are that most people going to see a Michael Jackson biopic are already a fan, but that can’t be entirely the case. The film is unabashedly a crowd-pleaser, and audiences are receiving it that way. The King of Pop has remained popular even as baggage piled up around his adult personal life.
Can you imagine what a similar film about Prince might do at the box office? I’m sure someone is working on that right now.
My review of Michael can be found here. I’m convinced that certain critics went out of their way to try and kill this movie, and they kinda look foolish now. That’s not to say it’s perfect, far from it, but it’s absurd that some of the criticisms have compared it to a Lifetime TV movie. I won’t be surprised if Michael hits or even crosses $200M domestically, and the sky is the limit on the world stage.
