‘There’s at Least One More Movie’ — Studio Boss Talks Up Potential Michael Jackson Film Franchise

After Michael broke box office records to secure the biggest global debut for a biopic of all time, there’s a lot of talk about a sequel. According to one film studio executive involved with its production, we may be looking at a Michael Jackson movie franchise.

Michael made a huge $217 million at the global box office, significantly ahead of the previous biopic record holder, Oppenheimer, which debuted to $174 million in 2023. According to Variety, Michael cost nearly $200 million to produce (including reshoots for the third act totalling around $15 million). But based on this start, Michael will easily turn a profit during its theatrical run.

Michael’s box office success comes despite accusations of “whitewashing.” The movie ends in 1988 during the Bad tour, and does not feature Michael Jackson’s high-profile child abuse allegations. Last week, Colman Domingo, who plays Michael Jackson’s father, Joe, suggested a sequel could deal with the allegations.

Speaking to Business Insider, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson suggested the same, and even mentioned the possibility of using some of the scenes filmed for the scrapped third act of the original for the sequel.

“Look, there’s at least one more movie,” Fogelson said. “Just speaking less as an employee of Lionsgate and more as a person who has spent a lot of time in the movie business, I was always excited by the possibility that you could make a more complete and satisfying telling of Michael’s story if you weren’t confined to only one movie.”

Variety has reported that Michael, which sees Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson play the title role, was meant to include a scene in which police arrive at Neverland Ranch to search for evidence of child abuse in 1993, but it does not appear in the final cut.

This is allegedly one of many scenes that were meant to explore this part of Jackson’s life in the third act, but they were all cut because attorneys for the Jackson estate “realized there was a clause in a settlement with one of the singer’s accusers, Jordan Chandler, that barred the depiction or mention of him in any movie.” Michael Jackson had denied all allegations, and his estate continues to deny the claims.

This sparked $15 million dollars worth of reshoots and a new ending, Variety reported, contributing to a delay to the movie’s release from April last year to this spring. The Jackson estate covered the cost because the error was theirs, Variety said, but it now has an equity stake in the film.

Now, Michael ends with a scene set during Jackson’s Bad tour, which ran from 1987 to 1989. There isn’t a single mention of the child abuse allegations at any point in the movie. Instead, it revolves around the music and Jackson’s troubled relationship with his father.

Business Insider said that based on its conversation with Lionsgate’s Fogelson, Michael 2, or 3, or maybe even 4, could spotlight the singer’s fall from grace, but only if producer Graham King, director Antione Fuqua, and writer John Logan decide to explore it.

“From my perspective, it’s important to try to give the audience an authentic understanding of who Michael Jackson was,” Fogelson insisted. “So I think that that can be done with or without some of what was in the third act that had to be scrapped.”

Photo by Emma McIntyre/WireImage.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.