The big-budget Michael Jackson spectacle, Michael, has shrugged off horrendous reviews and a troubled production to shatter records for music biopic debuts.

Critics have slammed the film for glossing over some of the less convenient aspects of Jackson’s life, giving it a paltry 38 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

But audiences have been far more enthusiastic, scoring the movie 97 per cent on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter.

The highly authorised portrayal of the King of Pop stars his nephew Jaafar Jackson and was co-produced by the Jackson estate.

It opened with $US97 million ($136 million) in US and Canadian theatres, and $US217.4 million ($304.7 million) globally, according to studio estimates.

Lionsgate’s Michael far surpassed previous biopic top performers like Straight Outta Compton — a $US60.2 million ($84.4 million) domestic debut in 2015 — and Bohemian Rhapsody — $US51 million ($71 million) in 2018.

Internationally, Michael collected $US120.4 million ($168.7 million), with its global opening figures also a new high for a music biopic.

Universal picked up distribution in most international markets.

But critics have been scathing. The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw called it a “frustratingly shallow, inert picture, a kind of cruise-ship entertainment” and gave it two stars.

Roger Ebert could muster only one star and said “make no mistake about it: Michael isn’t a movie. It’s a filmed playlist in search of a story”.

And this, from the BBC’s Nicholas Barber alongside one star:

“This saccharine, reverential biopic about controversial music legend Michael Jackson is set to be one of the worst films of 2026 – removing ‘everything that might be deemed dramatic’.

“It’s bad. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad.”

A few weeks back, domestic box office estimates for Michael were closer to $US50 million ($A70 million).

But it wildly overperformed.

“From the beginning, all of the signals were that something like this was possible,” Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson said.

“We were seeing massive engagement with every conceivable audience segment that you could identify.”

Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson plays the king of pop in Antoine Fuqua’s film. Photo: AAP

Even in the lucrative market of music biopics, Michael was an audacious bet on an extraordinarily popular but controversial figure.

The reputation of Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, has been repeatedly tarnished by allegations of sexual abuse of children.

Jackson and his estate have maintained his innocence, though the pop star acknowledged sharing a bedroom with other people’s children. He was acquitted in his sole criminal trial in 2005.

Some Jackson family members opposed the film. Janet Jackson was uninvolved and doesn’t appear in it. Jackson’s daughter, Paris, called it “fantasy land”.

Jaafar Jackson at the Los Angeles premiere. Photo: AAP

But three years after Leaving Neverland, the 2009 documentary about Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of children, Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King announced plans for the biopic. Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, was cast to star.

Michael had an unusually rocky production. After shooting was completed, producers realised they had made a costly mistake.

The third act focused on the accusations of Jordan Chandler, then 13 years old, whom Jackson paid $US23 million ($32 million) to in a 1994 settlement. The terms of that settlement barred the Jackson estate from ever mentioning Chandler in a movie.

A huge chunk of the film had to be cut. Reshoots for as much as $US50 million ($70 million) were done at the estate’s expense.

Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan reworked the movie to conclude in 1988, before any accusations were made.

-with AAP