Back in April, the official Michael Jackson movie biopic hit cinemas and was met with generally negative reviews. Critics slammed Michael, which stars the King of Pop’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, for not including the multiple child abuse allegations the late singer faced in life and continues to after his death.
Nevertheless, loyal fans showed up for the Lionsgate musical featuring a ton of Jackson’s hits, before the story ended with the Bad Tour in the late 1980s. Now over two months on, Michael has broken an all-time Hollywood box office record.
Having surpassed Freddie Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Michael became the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time and now the MJ movie has topped Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer as the biggest biographical film ever made. As it stands, Michael has made over $977 million worldwide and is expected to cross $1 billion before its time in cinemas concludes.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Part 2 has been announced by Lionsgate. Some of the unused footage from the first film will feature and continue the story into the 1990s. The sequel will presumably address Jackson’s first set of child abuse allegations, which were settled out of court in a multi-million dollar deal.