Michael, the controversial drama focusing on Michael Jackson, has just set a new record at the box office. After being released in April, the film has become the highest-grossing musical biopic in history.
Written by John Logan and directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film sees Jackson's real-life nephew, Jaafar Jackson, play the late popstar, while Colman Domingo and Nia Long portray his parents.
After two months on the big screen, Box Office Mojo has reported that Michael has now grossed over $932 million worldwide, taking it past the mark of $911 million that was set by Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018.
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Michael, which recently became available to watch at home after its cinema run, has made headlines not just for its box-office success, but also for the controversy surrounding its portrayal (or lack thereof) of Jackson and his personal life.
In addition to the controversy, the film garnered a mixed response from critics despite praise for the musical sequences and Jaafar's central performance. On Rotten Tomatoes, the biographical drama has an approval rating of 38% from 294 reviews.
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"Unfortunately, Michael is a botched job. After Fuqua does interesting work sowing seeds of folly amid the star's glorious rise, the movie gives up and turns to total sanctification," noted The Atlantic.
"The purpose of a biopic is to show us aspects of a public figure that the public never had access to. But Michael utterly fails at giving us any sense of who Jackson was behind closed doors," opined Slate.
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"It's not that any of these vignettes are inaccurate. It's just that they fall so far short of the complete picture that they barely capture the essence of Michael Jackson," wrote Time Magazine, while The Observer called it "aggressively anodyne".
Elsewhere at the box office, Curry Barker's Obsession became the highest-grossing film from Focus Features, with the horror hit snatching the title from 2019 period drama Downton Abbey.
Michael is available to buy and rent on Prime Video, AppleTV and other digital retailers.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
