The Michael Jackson biopic hitting theaters this week carries a $200 million price tag, a turbulent production history, and one glaring absence: the child sexual abuse allegations that shadowed the last two decades of the pop star’s life. Cast members are now publicly explaining why.
Colman Domingo, who plays Joe Jackson in Antoine Fuqua’s Michael, told NBC’s Today show that the film’s timeline — spanning the 1960s through 1988 — simply predates the first allegations, which surfaced in 1993. “We centered it on the makings of Michael,” Domingo said. “It’s an intimate portrait of who Michael is… through his eyes.” He added that a potential sequel could address those later years. Co-star Nia Long, who plays Katherine Jackson, offered a blunter take on whether that follow-up gets made: “If the price is right.”
The chronological framing, it turns out, was not the original plan. The film’s first cut reportedly ended with an accuser whose settlement with Jackson’s estate contained a clause barring his depiction or mention in any movie — a detail the estate, serving as a producer, had overlooked. The legal discovery forced an overhaul of the entire third act, adding at least $10 million in reshoots over 22 additional shooting days last June, and pushed the release date back more than a year.
The screenplay had originally been planned to include the abuse accusations, with screenwriter John Logan saying he wanted to “humanize but not sanitize” Jackson’s story. An early version reportedly opened in 1993, with Jackson staring at his reflection as police arrived at Neverland Ranch. That scene never made it to theaters.
Director Fuqua, for his part, has been candid about his own skepticism. In an interview with The New Yorker, he said he was doubtful of some accusers’ parents, particularly Jordan Chandler’s father, who was recorded threatening to ensure Jackson would be “humiliated beyond belief.” Fuqua stressed he didn’t know the truth behind the allegations but noted that “sometimes people do some nasty things for some money.”
Critics have not been kind. Rotten Tomatoes shows 32% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with Metacritic assigning a score of 38 out of 100. Roger Ebert’s site called it “a filmed playlist in search of a story,” while Empire dismissed it as “a cosplay tribute with no artistic point-of-view.” Jackson’s own daughter Paris was not involved and previously described an early script as “sugar-coated.”
Audiences, however, appear unmoved by the critical drubbing. Michael is projected to open between $65 million and $70 million domestically across 3,900 theaters, with some exhibitors forecasting numbers closer to $80 million — which would make it the largest debut ever for a music biopic, surpassing both Bohemian Rhapsody and Straight Outta Compton. Globally, the film eyes a $150 million opening weekend.
Lionsgate internally hopes the film reaches at least $700 million worldwide, a milestone that would greenlight at least one more installment. Studios note that roughly 30% of the material cut from the current film could be reconstituted for a sequel. Whether that sequel would finally confront the abuse allegations — or continue sidestepping them — remains an open question.
