Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chairman Adam Fogelson gave an update on the highly anticipated sequel to the studio’s Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, telling analysts on a Q1 call that “we are targeting a production start towards the end of this year or early next.”
As far as when we’ll see the sequel to Liongate’s highest grossing $1 billion-plus movie, Fogelson shared “I think that end of calendar ’27 and the first half of calendar ’28 would be the current thought of roughly where the movie would go.”
Fogelson couched these statements by emphasizing, “we’re not ready to announce everything at the moment.”
He was asked by analysts on today’s call about the profit structure of the first pic, particularly in regards to its share with the Jackson estate and Universal (which licensed foreign), as well as the budget of the sequel given the fact that there’s an amount of footage already banked from the first production.
“We do have a number of sequences, particularly some big musical sequences, that were shot previously, that are almost sure to be incorporated, but we are mostly focused right now on how to make sure we can deliver, at the right price, the biggest, best sequel,” says Fogelson, “That is what the audience is going to want and deserve after the experience we gave them the first time. So we’re not ready to give guidance on the budget yet, but we certainly will be able to take advantage of some stuff that we previously shot, as I had said before.”
The release date of Michael was delayed from November 2025 to the final weekend of April 2026. During production, the Jackson estate overlooked the inclusion of one of the pop singer’s accusers in the John Logan written script. The sequence was already shot, and forced $50M of reshoots, which the Jackson estate covered. Still, there was a significant amount of footage shot on the Antoine Fuqua directed, Graham King production which provided the catalyst for a sequel.
Fogelson explained that Lionsgate views the profitability on its films in a ten-year cycle and that Michael will have “a long tail.”
Universal generated a bulk of Michael‘s $643.7M oreign box office sans Russia, C.I.S. and Japan which Lionsgate’s foreign sales arm managed.
Added Fogelson, “There’s nothing unusual as far as profit being shared among participants.”
The studio boss added that the upcoming Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, is one of the studio’s most best tested.