‘Michael’ Made More Than Enough Money to Warrant a Sequel, but a Biopic Sequel Is Almost Unprecedented

With $218 million globally, the Michael Jackson biopic is a hit with no equal among music biopics.

The vibe among the audience at last week’s premiere of “Michael” at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles was ecstatic, but when I mentioned to the stranger sitting next to me ahead of the screening that Lionsgate was considering making a sequel to the Michael Jackson biopic, he said, “Boy, that movie sounds like a bummer.”

“Michael” made a staggering $97 million at the domestic box office this weekend, which was a remarkable result that exceeded even the most generous of predictions. Internationally, where Universal released Antoine Fuqua’s film, the film made an additional $121.6 million for a global cumulative total of $218.7 million. It’s the biggest opening for a music biopic by an absurd margin.

“Straight Outta Compton” opened to about $60 million domestic, while “Bohemian Rhapsody” did $51 million domestic and eventually legged out to an insane $910.8 million globally, the bulk of that coming internationally. We’re already thinking about numbers like that or beyond for “Michael,” positioning it as one of the bigger titles of the year.

When you tout those numbers for any movie, you start thinking sequel. In the case of “Michael,” Lionsgate film chief Adam Fogelson told THR on the film’s red carpet, “We absolutely have more story to tell. … We have prepared for that moment.” The movie also ends with a recently-added title card saying “His Story Continues,” just as the movie concludes at the beginning of Jackson’s “Bad” tour. (Very Marvel-coded.)

Because of the enormous legal issues that dogged this movie and forced massive reshoots, a lengthy delay, and a total retooling of the third act, IndieWire understands that about 30 percent of the footage initially shot for “Michael” went unused, some of which could be incorporated into a sequel. Still, it’s unclear what that footage specifically entails.

As has been widely reported, “Michael” originally saw Jackson battling accusations of sexual abuse as a framework for a good chunk of its story, but terms of a settlement in one of the cases prevented Jackson’s estate from ever depicting the accuser’s family in a film. Fuqua said in an interview with The New Yorker, “I shot him being stripped naked, treated like an animal, a monster,” during a scene inside a raid at Jackson’s Neverland ranch.

The movie forgoes all that added context and ends at a moment in Jackson’s career when things couldn’t be rosier, and it’s part of what has led to the massive disconnect between the 38 percent critic score for the film on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience score of 97 percent, as well as an A- CinemaScore. Clearly the audience demand for more is there.

But let’s set aside the fact for a moment that a sequel might not include some of Jackson’s biggest hits and would instead focus on a controversial moment in the singer’s life that his estate may be unwilling or unable to explore. Exactly how many biopics have successfully mounted a sequel of any kind?

One of the best, most successful examples might be “Funny Lady,” the sequel to “Funny Girl” starring Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice. That film made $40.1 million at the box office back in 1975, which was less than the original but in today’s dollars is a bona fide smash above $250 million. There’s also “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” which had Cate Blanchett reprise her role as Queen Elizabeth I, and that too made $75 million globally back in 2007. Coming up, we also have the follow-up/don’t-call-it-a-sequel film “The Social Reckoning” from Aaron Sorkin about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg; a discussed sequel to “Straight Outta Compton” never materialized, though Universal is in the works on an untitled Snoop Dogg movie (LaKeith Stanfield played him in the N.W.A. film); and let’s not forget that Sony is planning to release four Beatles movies all at once.

If we do get a sequel, we should know in a matter of weeks if one is formally announced, but a script from writer John Logan is not yet complete, and the studio will also need to wrangle the schedules and salaries of the cast to return, which could create its own challenges.

“Michael” has already defied all expectations and demonstrated exactly what side the global audience is on, controversy or not. Whether or not a sequel to a biopic can be successful? That might be the least of anyone’s worries.