He should have made musicals, it makes me sad that it never happened

It's honestly absurd that he never made musicals, a glorified music video in moonwalker made 180 million (adjusted) internationally at the box office without a release in Asia or North America. He was so popular that his musicals would have been massive commercial hits, and inspired soundtrack albums which go onto sell millions along with hit singles. I'm not sure where a ideal window for him making movies would have happened but it would have absolutely been healthier for him then constant performances and nonstop travel.

Musicals pretty much started to lose mainstream popularity in the 1960s. Occasionally one would become a hit (Grease), but most didn't do that well (Hair, The Wiz, Xanadu, Can't Stop The Music, Thank God It's Friday, Cats, etc). Even Rocky Horror Picture Show wasn't a success when originally released. It started to become popular as a cult movie in the 1980s with the goth crowd with midnight showings. Technically I guess Purple Rain is a musical, it was a surprise hit, but Prince's other movies didn't do anything much.

DuranDuran said:

Musicals pretty much started to lose mainstream popularity in the 1960s. Occasionally one would become a hit (Grease), but most didn't do that well (Hair, The Wiz, Xanadu, Can't Stop The Music, Thank God It's Friday, Cats, etc). Even Rocky Horror Picture Show wasn't a success when originally released. It started to become popular as a cult movie in the 1980s with the goth crowd with midnight showings. Technically I guess Purple Rain is a musical, it was a surprise hit, but Prince's other movies didn't do anything much.

Click to expand...

He should have made movies and or film scores, if not for musicals i'm not sure what else. But it's a huge missed opportunity

He was tailor made for musicals that’s for sure. His 70s sketches for the Jacksons variety shows were as close as it gets and obviously there was The Wiz, Ghosts, Bad, Remember The Time, Thriller, Captain EO.

There are also the failed projects like the Peter Pan film and the one Tim Burton wanted to make with Michael at one point. Both would have ben pure musicals like The Wiz.

In another time he would have been competition for Fred Astaire

Keep in mind also that when successful singers act on films/musicals the result is, most of the time, disappointing and embarrassing.

This goes not only for Michael Jackson, but also for Madonna, Elvis Presley, Prince, and so on.

Also, such films/musicals tend to be commercial failures because their audience is mostly the fans of the said singer, rather than the general audience.

filmandmusic said:

He was tailor made for musicals that’s for sure. His 70s sketches for the Jacksons variety shows were as close as it gets and obviously there was The Wiz, Ghosts, Bad, Remember The Time, Thriller, Captain EO.

There are also the failed projects like the Peter Pan film and the one Tim Burton wanted to make with Michael at one point. Both would have ben pure musicals like The Wiz.

In another time he would have been competition for Fred Astaire

Click to expand...

American filmmaker Tim Burton at one point tried to convince Michael Jackson to star on the 'House Of Wax' musical.

This was not a good idea from the very beginning (given the singer's history with countless plastic cosmetic surgeries), and if that project proceeded and it was released, then Michael Jackson would have been the laughing stock of many viewers.

filmandmusic said:

In another time he would have been competition for Fred Astaire

Click to expand...

Unlikely because of the racism of the time in the USA (especially the Southern states) & Hollywood (such as Stepin Fetchit style acting & blackface). That's why the Nicholas Brothers, Berry Brothers, or even Bojangles Robinson are not as well known today as Astaire & Gene Kelly. During that time, Black performers in general mostly performed on the chitlin' circuit for Black audiences in juke joints. Very few got mainstream promotion like Louis Armstrong. Sammy Davis Jr. was a member of the otherwise white Rat Pack. So he got help that way.

mj_frenzy said:

This goes not only for Michael Jackson, but also for Madonna, Elvis Presley, Prince, and so on.

Click to expand...

Most of Elvis movies were box office successes though. If they weren't, the movie studios definitely wouldn't have made over 30 of them. At the end his movie popularity dropped. Elvis didn't want to make a lot of them anyway. He wanted to make serious movies, but Colonel Parker didn't care about that and wanted sure moneymakers. Parker turned down the "serious" movies and approved the ones teenagers would want to watch.

IhateTheMedia said:

He should have made movies and or film scores, if not for musicals i'm not sure what else. But it's a huge missed opportunity

Click to expand...

Complementing to what filmandmusic said there were many times in MJ's career where he tried to get into movie soundtrack projects, more so towards the last decade of his life, but unfortunately there were always reasons that forced the projects to get cancelled.

In 1983 - right after the Motown 25 performance - MJ spent 6 months working on a soundtrack and was set to be the lead for a Peter Pan musical film directed by Steven Spielberg, but due to Spielberg's conflicting schedule throughout 1983-1986 and creative differences in 1989 that caused the movie's vision to be changed, it made the project get cancelled. Around 4 songs were made for the film (Neverland Landing, Make A Wish, Happy Song, I'm Peter Pan) and it's said that MJ made a full orchestration for at least 2 of the songs.

Another time in 2000, MJ had started to work on a soundtrack for a remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in an attempt to secure the movie's leading role. But since Warner Bros was only interested in the soundtrack and not MJ playing the lead role, made MJ stop working on the project.

"In June 2001, Michael hired film producer Marc Schaffel to act as an advisor and to work with him on numerous projects... Together they formed Neverland Valley Entertainment, a company designed to fulfil Michael's film and video dreams.

Schaffel claims that in 2000, Michael even stopped recording Invincible to work in secret at a small Los Angeles studio on a soundtrack for a planned remake of Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, in an attempt to secure the lead role. "He thought it was the perfect role for him, and he planned to use the soundtrack, basically, to bribe his way into getting the part," Schaffel said. Schaffel said he attended several meetings with Warner Bros., the film distributors but they were only interested in the soundtrack and not in Michael playing the lead role, which eventually went to Johnny Depp." -Making Michael Page 379

Click to expand...

There's also a track in the vault called "Green Hornet Groove" that was copyright registered after MJ's death which was composed to be pitched for use in the Seth Rogan film The Green Hornet which ended up not being used, so another failed attempt.

This one is more of a theory of mine, but there's an instrumental track made in 2008 called King Tutankhamen, and a year prior to the song's creation MJ had mentioned in a meeting with Randy Phillips that he wanted to play King Tutankhamun in a TV mini-series. So it makes me believe that MJ might have worked on the song for a potential film project based on that idea.

"In April 2007, Michael and his entertainment attorney Peter Lopez met with Randy Phillips, the CEO of live entertianment promoters Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) Live, in the private wine cellar of a luxury condo in Turnberry Towers that AEG had rented for the occasion.

Together they discussed the possibility of Michael taking up another residency, this time at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena in London, an arena which AEG operates... In the meeting Michael reiterated his desire to make movies, and discussed the idea of playing King Tutankhamun in a television mini-series based on the story of the pharaoh. Phillips explained that AEG had the necessary connections after bringing a King Tutankhamun exhibition to the United States in 2005. The idea was presented to filmmakers at Walden Media, which is owned by AEG, but they did not feel the project was viable." -Making Michael Page 421

Click to expand...

DuranDuran said:

Most of Elvis movies were box office successes though. If they weren't, the movie studios definitely wouldn't have made over 30 of them. At the end his movie popularity dropped. Elvis didn't want to make a lot of them anyway. He wanted to make serious movies, but Colonel Parker didn't care about that and wanted sure moneymakers. Parker turned down the "serious" movies and approved the ones teenagers would want to watch.

Click to expand...

American film producer Hal Wallis (who worked with Elvis Presley) provided a different explanation to that.

Hal Wallis revealed that he did not believe that Elvis Presley could carry a film without (his) music.

That is why, Hal Wallis (along with Colonel Parker) never considered developing Elvis Presley's acting ability for serious/dramatic films.

mj_frenzy said:

Keep in mind also that when successful singers act on films/musicals the result is, most of the time, disappointing and embarrassing.

This goes not only for Michael Jackson, but also for Madonna, Elvis Presley, Prince, and so on.

Click to expand...

This. Most people think The Wiz and Captain EO and Moonwalker are all very poor movies. Same for all the Elvis/Beatles/Spice movies. I think releasing lots of those would be very damaging for Michael's legacy.

R1chard said:

This. Most people think The Wiz and Captain EO and Moonwalker are all very poor movies. Same for all the Elvis/Beatles/Spice movies. I think releasing lots of those would be very damaging for Michael's legacy.

Click to expand...

The people are right they are terrible films built around dance choreographies and singing. I think the Fred Astaire films of old Hollywood are pretty lackluster too but they were hits at the time and BBC still plays those movies on Sunday afternoons

R1chard said:

This. Most people think The Wiz and Captain EO and Moonwalker are all very poor movies. Same for all the Elvis/Beatles/Spice movies. I think releasing lots of those would be very damaging for Michael's legacy.

Click to expand...

Really? The Kardashian family became famous because of Kim's sex tape with Brandy's (the singer) brother Ray J. Kim is now a millionaire. There's probably 50 different Real Housewives shows by now plus several Bachelor/Bachelorette. Awhile back Honey Boo Boo was a popular show. America's Favorite Home Videos has been on 34 years and is still in production. Some Youtube & TikTok influencers are now mainstream celebrities & even actors in movies/TV shows. I don't think the general public is as selective with their entertainment as you seem to imply. Tyler Perry is now a billionaire and owns his own movie studio, which is said to be bigger than the ones by the old movie studios in Hollywood. Tyler became famous playing Madea, first in stage plays & then in TV & movies

Anyway, A Hard Day's Night has been rated by a lot of movie critics to be one of the best movies of all time. Not Help! & Magical Mystery Tour though. The Wiz is also a favorite of Black families of a certain age. You know what is damaging to Mike's legacy? It's not Moonwalker, it's the allegations. He wasn't called W---- J----. because of Captain EO. It was because of his offstage antics, some of them planted by Mike himself like Elephant Man bones & oxygen chambers.

R1chard said:

This. Most people think The Wiz and Captain EO and Moonwalker are all very poor movies. Same for all the Elvis/Beatles/Spice movies. I think releasing lots of those would be very damaging for Michael's legacy.

Click to expand...

All Michael needed was to do voice overs in animated films or something that he could do the soundtrack for. He wanted to do a Disney movie but those BS allegations fucked him over

IhateTheMedia said:

All Michael needed was to do voice overs in animated films or something that he could do the soundtrack for. He wanted to do a Disney movie but those BS allegations fucked him over

Click to expand...

I know he was to work on the soundtrack for Cats Don't Dance but it never happened I'm kinda bumped out because I really like that movie. it would have been 10x cooler with M. Though I don't think it was the allegations that didn't let him work on it. It was early 90's (I think) and I guess he just had too many projects at the time.

I also remember hearing that Dangerous was to come out in 90 but came out in 91 and LA Gear had a deal with Michael but they dropped out because Michael was taking his time on Dangerous. Feel free to correct me if I didn't get everything for missed few things

@mjfanatic777 said:

I also remember hearing that Dangerous was to come out in 90 but came out in 91 and LA Gear had a deal with Michael but they dropped out because Michael was taking his time on Dangerous. Feel free to correct me if I didn't get everything for missed few things

Click to expand...

Michael Jackson for the most part of 1990 was still considering releasing his 'Decade' compilation album (with some classic hits plus some brand new songs).

In the final months of 1990, Michael Jackson (acting on David Geffen's advice) changed his mind and he decided to release a brand new album called 'Dangerous' album which was originally scheduled for release in January (1991).

DuranDuran said:

Really? The Kardashian family became famous because of Kim's sex tape with Brandy's (the singer) brother Ray J. Kim is now a millionaire.

Click to expand...

Just to get things straight - nobody thinks the Kardashian family are good actors, and nobody thinks that sex tape is a good movie.

I couldn't care less about "influencers" and "mainstream celebrities" or who owns the biggest studio. People know a bad movie when they see one.

People think MJ is a good singer. They think he's a good songwriter. They think he's a good dancer. That's enough. He doesn't need to be an actor too. He doesn't need to be a painter or a clothes designer or an advertising mogul or a racing driver. He had a great career, let's just leave it at that. He doesn't need to be rammed down everyone's throats every minute of every day. You'd get sick if him in that case.

R1chard said:

He doesn't need to be rammed down everyone's throats every minute of every day. You'd get sick if him in that case.

Click to expand...

Taylor Swift has been around for close to 20 years & Drake for over 20 years, if you count him being on the TV show Degrassi High. They're talked about all the time in the media and people aren't tired of them yet. Then there's old Donald Trump, who's probably talked about even more than Taylor or Drake, especially with late night talk show hosts, daytime shows like The View, & comedians. There's even a biopic currently being filmed about young Trump.

R1chard said:

People know a bad movie when they see one.

Click to expand...

That's an opinion of the viewer. What one person thinks is good is bad to another & vice versa.

mj_frenzy said:

Keep in mind also that when successful singers act on films/musicals the result is, most of the time, disappointing and embarrassing.

Click to expand...

What about rappers? A lot of them have become popular movie and/or TV stars like The Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith), Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Eve, MC Lyte, Method Man, 50 Cent, etc. In the old Hollywood studio days singers like Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, & Dean Martin were made into movie stars as well. They didn't just make teen movies like Elvis & The Beatles either.

mj_frenzy said:

That is why, Hal Wallis (along with Colonel Parker) never considered developing Elvis Presley's acting ability for serious/dramatic films.

Click to expand...

Parker only cared about money, that's why he had songwriters sign over 50% of their publishing to Elvis. In the mid-1970s, Barbra Striesand offered Elvis the lead in her remake of A Star Is Born. This was several years after Elvis stopped acting. Elvis wanted to do it, but Parker insisted on top billing and more money than was offered, which Streisand and the Warner Brothers movie studio wasn't willing to do. So she gave the part to country singer Kris Kristofferson.

DuranDuran said:

What about rappers? A lot of them have become popular movie and/or TV stars like The Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith), Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Eve, MC Lyte, Method Man, 50 Cent, etc. In the old Hollywood studio days singers like Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, & Dean Martin were made into movie stars as well. They didn't just make teen movies like Elvis & The Beatles either.

Parker only cared about money, that's why he had songwriters sign over 50% of their publishing to Elvis. In the mid-1970s, Barbra Striesand offered Elvis the lead in her remake of A Star Is Born. This was several years after Elvis stopped acting. Elvis wanted to do it, but Parker insisted on top billing and more money than was offered, which Streisand and the Warner Brothers movie studio wasn't willing to do. So she gave the part to country singer Kris Kristofferson.

Click to expand...

No joke, I once had the unfortunate pleasure of watching an Elvis film called Clambake? , it was bloody awful. One of the worst I've ever seen.

The same way I'm glad he never went into movies, I'm glad Mike never went into musicals.

It's a selfish fans view point, but he was such a richly wonderful artist and performer, I just wanted him to stay in that lane and rule that kingdom, rather than go into musicals/acting and it not be as much of a success for him

Blues_Away2023 said:

No joke, I once had the unfortunate pleasure of watching an Elvis film called Clambake? , it was bloody awful. One of the worst I've ever seen.

Click to expand...

I've always heard that the Elvis movie that made the most money is Blue Hawaii. But critic wise, his pre-army movies are usually rated the best, King Creole in particular. Kurt Russell, as a boy, was in the Elvis movie It Happened At the World's Fair. Kurt later played Elvis in a biopic from the 1970s.

mj_frenzy said:

Michael Jackson for the most part of 1990 was still considering releasing his 'Decade' compilation album (with some classic hits plus some brand new songs).

In the final months of 1990, Michael Jackson (acting on David Geffen's advice) changed his mind and he decided to release a brand new album called 'Dangerous' album which was originally scheduled for release in January (1991).

Click to expand...

ohhh I forgot about Decade. Thanks!

DuranDuran said:

What about rappers? A lot of them have become popular movie and/or TV stars like The Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith), Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Eve, MC Lyte, Method Man, 50 Cent, etc. In the old Hollywood studio days singers like Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, & Dean Martin were made into movie stars as well. They didn't just make teen movies like Elvis & The Beatles either.

Parker only cared about money, that's why he had songwriters sign over 50% of their publishing to Elvis. In the mid-1970s, Barbra Striesand offered Elvis the lead in her remake of A Star Is Born. This was several years after Elvis stopped acting. Elvis wanted to do it, but Parker insisted on top billing and more money than was offered, which Streisand and the Warner Brothers movie studio wasn't willing to do. So she gave the part to country singer Kris Kristofferson.

Click to expand...

Many of these films (with rappers) look like B films because of their low-budget production, ridiculous plot, cheap visual effects, and so on.

Also, these rappers are not really convincing as characters (in their films) because people had already connected them with rap music/rapping.

mj_frenzy said:

Many of these films (with rappers) look like B films because of their low-budget production, ridiculous plot, cheap visual effects, and so on.

Also, these rappers are not really convincing as characters (in their films) because people had already connected them with rap music/rapping.

Click to expand...

Will Smith was once called the box office king of summer and he has won a best actor Oscar. Michael Jackson appeared in a Will Smith movie (Men In Black 2). Oueen Latifah was nominated for an Oscar for Chicago (a musical). Eminem & the hip hop group Three 6 Mafia have both won Oscars too, not for acting, but for best song. Ice-T has been on Law & Order SVU for over 20 years. Since when has the different Law & Order shows considered having ridiculous plots or low budget? Same for LL Cool J in NCIS Los Angeles. You don't know what you're talking about. Also singer Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar (for Dreamgirls, another musical) and is an EGOT. Jennifer was originally a contestant on American Idol, but didn't win her year. She now has a talk show and so does Kelly Clarkson another American Idol contestant.