Michael Jackson’s Estate Spent Millions To Sanitize His New Biopic. Crowds Don’t Seem To Care.

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4.4 • 18 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

The Berlin world premiere of Michael—the new Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic starring Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafaar in the title role—saw thousands of King of Pop fans gather outside the theater, rapturous applause after each of the movie’s musical numbers, and fawning praise over the lead performance. Left out of the celebratory film and tightly controlled red carpet rollout was any mention of thesexual abuse accusations that complicate his legacy. Yet producer Graham King admitted to being “nervous and anxious” to see the film with audiences for the first time. “A lot has happened on this film that I question how, why,” said King, who also produced the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. “I used to say Freddie Mercury was throwing hurdles down at me. Michael did the same. So Michael and Freddie are up there together laughing right now.” With an initial $150 million budget, Michael was already the most ambitious biopic of all time when it wrapped initial production in May 2024. That was before the estate’s executors learned of a clause in a 1994 settlement with one of Jackson’s child molestation accusers agreeing to never dramatize their story on screen, rendering a significant amount of footage useless. Instead of a 3.5-hour epic, Lionsgate and the filmmakers decided to end the movie in the late 1980s at the height of Jackson’s career following Thriller and Bad—and the estate agreed to fund 22 days of additional production at a cost Forbes estimates to be more than $25 million (some reports put it at as much as $50 million). By Matt Craig, Reporter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:18.7	Price and participation may vary.
0:22.3	Today on Forbes,
0:28.6	Michael Jackson's estate spent millions to sanitize his new biopic. Crowds don't seem to care.
0:36.9	The Berlin world premiere of Michael, the new Antoine Fukua directed biopic, starring Michael Jackson's nephew's nephew Jafar in the title role, saw
0:39.7	thousands of King of Pop fans gather outside the theater, rapturous applause after each of
0:44.6	the movie's musical numbers, and fawning praise over the lead performance.
0:49.9	Left out of the celebratory film and tightly controlled red carpet rollout was any mention of the sexual
0:55.3	abuse accusations that complicate his legacy. Producer Graham King, who also produced the Queen
1:02.0	biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, said, quote, a lot has happened on this film that I question how,
1:08.2	why. I used to say Freddie Mercury was throwing hurdles down at me.
1:12.4	Michael did the same. So Michael and Freddie are up there together laughing right now.
1:18.6	With an initial $150 million budget, Michael was already the most ambitious biopic of all time
1:24.6	when it wrapped initial production in May 2024.
1:34.1	That was before the estate's executors learned of a clause in a 1994 settlement with one of Jackson's child molestation accusers agreeing to never dramatize their story on screen, rendering a significant
1:40.4	amount of footage useless. Instead of a three-and-a-half-hour epic, Lionsgate and the filmmakers decided to end the movie
	...

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