The MJ Biopic Is Earning $12M Despite a 42% Rotten Tomatoes Score and His Own Family Calling It a Betrayal

The MJ Biopic Is Tracking Toward a $94M–$100M Domestic Opening — and a 96% Audience Score

Antoine Fuqua's Michael is launching far beyond expectations. The film grossed $38.5 million on Friday alone, its official opening day. Heading into the weekend, domestic projections sit at $94 million–$100 million, with a global launch north of $200 million. That would make it the biggest opening ever for a music biopic — surpassing Straight Outta Compton's $60.1 million record. Overseas, it's tracking in the $114 million range. Nearly 40 percent of the gross is coming from IMAX and premium large-format screens.

Audiences are showing up hard. The film earned a 96 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — the best ever for the genre — PostTrak exit scores in the low 90s, and an 85 percent definite recommend. It earned an A- on CinemaScore. Critics were less enthusiastic; the RT critics' score hovered between 29 and 40 percent heading into the weekend. None of that slowed ticket sales. Black moviegoers made up 38 percent of opening-day buyers, with Latinos and white moviegoers each at 26 percent.

One notable production choice: the filmmakers ended the story before the child sexual abuse allegations that emerged in 1993. That decision required significant reshoots — the budget climbed from $155 million to roughly $200 million to rework the third act. Jaafar Jackson, MJ's real-life nephew, plays the lead. Wednesday and Thursday previews earned $12.6 million — ahead of both Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer at the same stage.

Gobble's Take: A 96% audience score and a $200M global launch proves MJ's cultural pull is still the most bankable force in Hollywood.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Law Roach Is Done Dressing Zendaya — He's Dressing Ice Cream Now

The man who put Zendaya in a chess-piece Thierry Mugler look and made the entire internet lose its mind has a new client: Magnum ice cream bars. Law Roach has been named the brand's inaugural "Taste Architect" and will curate a full runway show on the Cannes Croisette next month, during the film festival, where models will strut in what he's calling "House of Magnum."

Roach says the partnership makes sense because Magnum shares his philosophy — "intention over impulse" — and he's treating this like a legitimate fashion moment, not a brand deal he's phoning in. His track record backs that up: those Dune press tour looks he styled for Zendaya are still being dissected on fashion Reddit years later.

Cannes runs May 13–24, which means the French Riviera will be hosting both the Palme d'Or race and a chocolate-dipped couture show simultaneously — and somehow the ice cream might get more Instagram coverage.

Gobble's Take: Law Roach turned a red carpet into a chessboard and a press tour into a fashion exhibition — a Magnum bar doesn't stand a chance of staying ordinary in his hands.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

The Man Who Created Iron Man Tried to Talk the Russos Out of Killing Him

When Jon Favreau sat down at the Avengers: Endgame table read in 2018, his first instinct was panic. He'd built Tony Stark from scratch on a $140 million gamble back in 2008 — a film nobody was sure would work, starring a actor Hollywood had written off — and now the script was asking him to watch that character die.

Favreau pulled Kevin Feige aside with his concerns. He worried the death would devastate the younger fans who'd grown up with RDJ's version of Tony. The Russo brothers and Feige held firm. The snap stayed. And with Endgame going on to earn $2.8 billion at the global box office, Favreau has since come around completely, calling the ending "wonderful." He still built the whole machine, though — which makes his original hesitation the most human thing about a $30 billion franchise.

Knowing the architect of the MCU once begged to save Tony Stark makes that final scene hit about ten times harder on rewatch.

Gobble's Take: The guy who invented the MCU wanted a different ending — and the fact that he was wrong is exactly why Endgame still wrecks you.

Source: Collider

Olivia Rodrigo's "Drop Dead" Hits No. 1 in Australia — Her Fourth Chart-Topper Down Under

"Drop Dead" debuted at No. 1 on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart this week, giving Olivia Rodrigo her fourth Australian chart-topper. She now joins her own track record: "Drivers Licence" (six weeks at No. 1 in 2021), "Good 4 U" (five weeks in 2021), and "Vampire" (one week in 2023).

The song didn't arrive quietly. "Drop Dead" got a boost from not one, but two music videos, plus a live performance at Coachella on April 18, when Rodrigo appeared as a surprise guest during Addison Rae's set. It's the lead single from her forthcoming third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, due out June 12. In claiming the top spot, Rodrigo ends Olivia Dean's months-long reign — Dean's "Man I Need" holds at No. 2, and her Sam Fender collaboration "Reign Me In" dips to No. 3.

Four Australian No. 1s, a Coachella cameo, and a new album on the way. Rodrigo is not slowing down.

Gobble's Take: Four Australian number ones, two music videos, and a Coachella surprise — Rodrigo is doing the promo work and it's paying off globally.

Source: Billboard

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• Duran Duran and Nile Rodgers Just Dropped the Song That Turns Your Commute Into Studio 54
• Netflix's Stranger Things Animated Spinoff Is Already Getting Torched by Critics — But One Voice Is Saving It
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