The immense success of the critically panned biopic “Michael” demonstrates that the singer’s fans are content to embrace a fictionalized version of his life rather than confront the potentially uncomfortable realities. It’s not uncommon for there to be a disconnect between critical reviews of a blockbuster and its popularity among audiences. However, it’s been a considerable time since a film as widely criticized as “Michael” has achieved such significant commercial success.
This biographical film about pop icon Michael Jackson has already become one of the highest-grossing musician biopics ever. Despite a sharp decline in its second weekend, it is on track to be one of the biggest global releases of 2026 so far. More striking, however, are the profound and wide-ranging discrepancies that the film’s somewhat celebrated yet problematic existence has brought to light or amplified.
Firstly, there’s the divergence between the actual events of Michael Jackson’s life and what this biography, approved by his estate, is willing to portray – and in some instances, legally permitted to depict. While biographical fiction inherently involves a degree of creative license, this disparity feels particularly vast for several reasons. Beyond this, one might then notice the related gap between the film that was initially envisioned, which was intended to cover the majority or entirety of Jackson’s life, and the version currently showing in theaters, which concludes in 1988 and hints at a sequel. This alteration is partly due to an unexpected legal issue where the filmmakers and the estate discovered they did not possess the legal right to depict an individual who accused Jackson of child molestation in 1993. The estate has asserted that this version of events is both “inaccurate and irrelevant.”