‘Michael’ Expected to Rake in Millions at the Box Office Despite Terrible Critical Reception
The Michael Jackson biopic Michael hits the box office on April 24. While the road to this point was a rocky one, the expectations for the film are sky high. Already, experts anticipate that the film will make millions. The expected audience excitement for the film contrasts sharply with the critical reception. Many have lambasted the film ahead of its release.
‘Michael’ is expected to rake in millions at the box office
According to Deadline, the international release of Michael raked in $18.5 million on its first day. In many countries, it had the biggest opening day for a musical biopic of all time.
The film comes to domestic theaters on April 24. Already, experts anticipate it will make between $65 and $70 million in the United States. It could also be eyeing a $150 million opening weekend globally.
In the United States, the film’s anticipated performance would set records. It could beat out Straight Outta Compton, which made $60.2 million, and Bohemian Rhapsody, which made $51 million.
The ‘Michael’ box office will perform well despite critical reviews
The film’s anticipated box office success comes despite some pretty terrible reviews. Critics have slammed the film, which follows Jackson from childhood until 1988. At the time of publication, the film has a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes.
RogerEbert.com’s Robert Daniels slammed the film for lacking depth in its exploration of the singer’s life.
“This repetitive biopic is afraid to navigate the singer’s anxieties, traumas, and frustrations, and its flat characterizations prevent it from interrogating Michael as a creator or person,” he wrote. “Michael leaps from one event to the next without reflection or pause, hastily attempting to summarize an accepted mythology of the singer’s unlikely rise to stardom in a surprisingly tight 127-minute runtime.”
In a review for Vulture, Alison Willmore presented a similar sentiment.
“Forget insight into its subject’s strange, warped personal life, or his artistry as an entertainer, or his family’s famously fraught dynamics — Michael barely manages the momentum needed to propel itself between the many musical numbers that are its main reason for existing,” she wrote. “Watching it feels more like being frog-marched through a wax museum than watching a movie, each milestone restaged with an off-putting, uncanny-valley resemblance and no interiority.”
The Boston Globe’s Odie Henderson wrote that Michael “barely counts as a movie,” and The New York Times’ Alissa Wilkinson slammed the film as “flat, barely human.”
Despite these blistering reviews, the film’s audience score sits at 96%.
A sequel is already in the works
At the end of Michael, a title card reading, “His Story Continues” appears on the screen. While the film was reportedly never meant to have a second part, its potential success led studios Lionsgate and Universal to reconsider.
“We absolutely have more story to tell,” Lionsgate film chair Adam Fogelson told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s premiere. “We have prepared for that moment. And if the audience reinforces that they’re ready for more, we’re prepared to give it to them sooner rather than later.”
While nothing has been confirmed either way, it seems likely that a box office smash could result in further films telling Jackson’s story.
