The Jackson estate's lawyers missed a clause buried in a 1993 legal settlement. That oversight cost up to $15 million in reshoots, forced the entire third act to be rebuilt from scratch, and stripped every mention of the abuse allegations from the script. The film that came out of those forced rewrites just crossed $911.9 million worldwide.
That number just passed Bohemian Rhapsody's $910.9 million record, making MICHAEL the highest-grossing music biopic ever made. The film opened April 24 to $217 million globally and $97 million domestically, nearly double Bohemian Rhapsody's $51 million domestic opening and the biggest launch any music biopic has seen.
The film carried a $155 million budget, roughly three times what Bohemian Rhapsody cost to make ($52 million). Then in early 2025, estate lawyers found a clause in a 1993 settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler that barred his depiction or mention in any film. The original third act, built around the abuse allegations and a police search of Neverland Ranch, had to go.
Twenty-two days of reshoots in Los Angeles added up to $15 million on top. The estate covered those costs since the oversight was theirs, and got a share of the film's profits in return. The rebuilt version closes with MJ backstage at the 1987 Bad tour, the allegations gone from the story entirely.
What came out is now Lionsgate's highest-grossing film ever, clearing every Hunger Games and Twilight title the studio has released. The same producer, Graham King, made Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018. He just broke his own record. A sequel is in development.
Jackson's estate has earned $3.5 billion since 2009, per Forbes. In 2024, they sold half of his recorded music and publishing rights (the ownership of his songs and recordings) to Sony for $600 million. Now they also own a piece of a film approaching $1 billion. Oppenheimer, at $920.8 million, is the highest-grossing biopic of any kind ever made. MICHAEL needs $9 million more.
‘MICHAEL’ is officially the biggest music biopic of all-time.