“Michael,” the biopic on the life of the King of Pop Michael Jackson that is being directed by Antoine Fuqua, is expected to be pushed back well into 2026.
During the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said that the film will “likely” be moved out of the company’s fiscal year 2026 financial results and into fiscal 2027. Lionsgate on Thursday was recapping its fiscal 2025 Q4 results, so Lionsgate’s fiscal ’27 won’t begin until calendar year 2026.
Feltheimer said “we’re excited about the three and a half hours of amazing footage from producer Graham King and director Antoine Fuqua, and we will be announcing a definitive release strategy and timing in the next few weeks.”
“Michael” was already delayed from a planned release in April 2025 to instead open October 3, 2025, but it appears unlikely to make that date either. Lionsgate had excitedly teased footage from “Michael” during its CinemaCon presentation in 2024, but the movie was virtually ignored this year.
The drama stems from a report in Puck from January that “Michael” faced massive reshoots as a result of an agreement made years ago with the family of one of the performer’s child molestation accusers, one that the Jackson estate neglected to disclose to the film’s producers.
According to Puck, Jackson’s legal team and the family of Jordan Chandler, the then-13-year-old who accused Jackson of molestation in 1993, agreed that the Chandler family would not be mentioned in any movie about Jackson’s life. But “Michael” was reportedly centered around the legal drama surrounding the Chandlers’ eventual $20 million settlement. The Jackson estate didn’t inform the producers of the legal issue until after the film had entered post-production.
Though the film had a budget of $150 million and would require enormous rewrites and reshoots to fix the film, Jackson’s estate was expected to cover the costs of the reshoots.
Lionsgate recently completed its separation of its studio business from Starz, the streaming service and premium cable network. Lionsgate is now operating under the ticker LION on the New York Stock Exchange, and Starz will launch on the NYSE on June 9.
“We are confident the separation will unlock significant value not only for the shareholders of both companies, but for our respective business and talent partners as we position our companies for continued growth,” Feltheimer said in his prepared remarks.
