Brand-New Historical Epic Becomes One of the Biggest Box Office Bombs of All Time

While the Michael Jackson biopic dominated headlines this past weekend with a record-breaking box-office debut, another wide release attracted the other kind of attention for its disastrous opening. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, Michaelgrossed nearly $100 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, setting a new record for biopics. It was followed by the holdover hits The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Project Hail Mary, both of which have grossed more than $300 million domestically during their theatrical runs. Debuting outside the top ten, however, was a movie that had been in the making for nearly half a decade. It survived a tumultuous production that saw its budget balloon from $70 million to a reported $150 million, only to deliver one of the worst box-office openings ever for a film of its size.