On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, in our Box Office segment, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin breaks down the recording-setting opening for Lionsgate’s musical biopic “Michael.” And Marc Malkin brings us a Just for Variety report on Madonna’s surprise visit to the Abbey in West Hollywood.
Listen to the full episode here:
Lionsgate had high hopes for “Michael,” but a global opening weekend number of more than $200 million was beyond their expectations — happily so. Rubin notes she’s been looking at 2018’s Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a benchmark. That film garnered more than $900 million worldwide. As a film, “Michael” also has other similarities to the “Bohemian Rhapsody,” she cites.
“It reminded me a lot of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ which really leaned heavily on recreating these thrilling concert sequences. It makes it a fun experience for the viewer to watch in an auditorium with great sound and great visuals, and it makes it fun to watch with other people,” Rubin observes. “So by leaning heavily on recreating performances of songs that people love, it just makes for a fun experience in the theater.”
As with all things involving Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, revisiting his story is challenging in light of the numerous, serious allegations of child sexual abuse that were leveled at the superstar in the last 15 years of his life. But, after this weekend, the audience has spoken.
“A lot of critics took issue with the fact that ‘Michael’ is a very sanitized approach to the life of Michael Jackson. It ends before he was ever accused of child sexual abuse, and so people feel like it’s leaving out a very important part of his life. but for audiences think that the end result ended up being the most crowd pleasing version of this film,” Rubin says. “Given the fact that it has really strong audience scores, it looks like it’s going to have a long life in theaters. And I spoke this morning to Lionsgate’s motion picture chairman, Adam Fogelson, and he was saying that you don’t deliver this kind of opening weekend number unless you are catering to every conceivable demographic.”
The remarkably strong showing for “Michael” is welcome news for exhibitors and bodes well for a strong spring with “The Devil Wears Prada 2” bowing this weekend. Rubin notes that the popcorn buckets dispensed for “Prada 2” will be in the shape of purses in an effort to make the long-awaited sequel feel like an event.
Madonna also made it event this past Saturday night in West Hollywood. As Malkin reports, the Material Girl made “an epic, and I mean epic surprise appearance Saturday night at West Hollywood LGBTQ bar and nightclub The Abbey.” The occasion also served as a birthday party for the owner of The Abbey, Tristan Schukraft, who got a special present hand-delivered by Madonna.
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