‘Michael’ ‘Set the Bar a Little Too High’ for Beatles Biopics: ‘Everybody’s Feeling the Pressure’

Help! The cast and crew of the four-part Beatles biopics are under a huge amount of pressure to justify the $250 million investment made, per insiders, especially after Michael Jackson‘s biopic Michael reset box office expectations for the genre with its global success.

According to Billboard, the film has generated $888.1 million worldwide, just $22.9 million shy of the highest-grossing biopic in history, Bohemian Rhapsody — a record that Michael is on track to break.

Director Sam Mendes and his team have “genuinely been caught by surprise with Michael‘s success,” reveals a source. “Remember, Michael was a pretty troubled film for its entire production, and the filmmakers had to fundamentally change that movie late in the game.”

Per Variety, the child sexual abuse allegations made against Jackson in the ’90s had to be cut from the film due to a clause in the $23 million settlement he made with accuser Jordan Chandler and his family, prohibiting the singer’s estate from ever mentioning him in a movie.

“The fact that it has brushed off all the controversy and managed to become a massive global hit puts a load of pressure on Sam, [the] actors and even Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney,” says the source, adding that the surviving Beatles have “sunk countless hours into helping Sam orchestrate this four-movie jigsaw puzzle into four distinct experiences people will pay to see in cinemas.”

Michael didn’t just rewrite box office expectations.

“The big change Michael‘s success is prompting is for the Beatles films to lean into live performance sequences as much as possible,” Examiner’s source reveals. “But that alone is a tricky proposition because of the fact that the Beatles themselves mostly quit performing for audiences at the height of their fame.”

Still, “that hasn’t stopped the films’ leads Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keogan from undertaking punishing, non-stop music tutorials, so they can look exactly like the real Beatles did,” says the source.

Will it be enough to dethrone Michael, though?

“Jaafar Jackson‘s epic performance in Michael, especially the physical transformation he pulled off and the absolutely mind-blowing recreations of the real Michael’s dance moves may have set the bar a little too high for these guys,” admits the source. “Everybody’s feeling the pressure to top Michael while at the same time wondering if that’s even possible.”