Overview
- The film opened Friday, April 24, after lawyers cut a storyline about the 1993 Jordan Chandler case and producers mounted a reported 22-day reshoot to rewrite the ending.
- Lionsgate confirmed it scrapped footage once the estate’s legal team flagged that the 1994 settlement bars any portrayal of Chandler.
- The released cut covers the 1960s through 1988, with Colman Domingo saying it focuses on the “making of Michael” and suggesting a possible sequel could address later years.
- Reviews skew negative, with Rotten Tomatoes in the mid-30s for critics, though early audience scores run high and many praise Jaafar Jackson’s likeness, movement and musical staging.
- The family is divided: Paris Jackson called the film “sugar-coated” and skipped the Los Angeles premiere, Janet Jackson declined to be portrayed, and Prince Jackson supported the project as an executive producer.