Michael VS Green Book
▸ WHICH ONE HOLDS UP BETTER
Michael holds up better here: it's rated QUESTION IT, while Green Book is SKIP IT.
Verdict🟡 QUESTION IT🔴 SKIP IT
The RealityThe box-office claim checks out: Michael opened to $97.2M domestic / $218.8M worldwide and crossed $1.029 billion globally, making it the highest-grossing biographical film and highest-grossing music biopic ever, per Deadline's and Billboard's box-office coverage. But critics were far less generous than the marketing implied: Rotten Tomatoes sits at 38% across 307 reviews, with the site's consensus calling the film 'a greatest hits album that could've benefitted from including liner notes.' NBC News/Today.com reported that scenes depicting the 1993 Neverland Ranch investigation into child sexual-abuse allegations were cut after Lionsgate cited 'certain legal considerations' tied to a settlement agreement barring mention of accuser Jordan Chandler. Michael's own daughter, Paris Jackson, told press the film 'panders to a very specific section of my dad's fandom that still lives in the fantasy. It's not real, but it's sold to you as real.'Dr. Shirley's surviving family publicly and directly disputed this framing. His brother Maurice Shirley called the film's portrayal a 'symphony of lies,' and his nephew Edwin Shirley said the family was never consulted despite the writer's claims. The family specifically disputed the film's depiction of Shirley as estranged from his relatives -- Maurice said that at the time the film is set, Shirley actually had three living brothers he stayed in contact with -- and, more fundamentally, disputed that Shirley and Vallelonga were ever really friends at all, with Maurice's wife describing it instead as strictly 'an employer-employee relationship.' Star Mahershala Ali personally apologized to the family after the backlash. The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture despite the dispute.
SHORT ANSWER
Michael: Yes, Michael really is the highest-grossing biopic in film history, crossing $1.029 billion worldwide. But the marketing's framing of an honest, complete portrait is misleading: Lionsgate cut scenes on the 1993 child sexual-abuse allegations for legal reasons, and critics (38% on Rotten Tomatoes) have panned the result as sanitized.
Green Book: Dr. Donald Shirley's surviving family publicly disputed Green Book's central premise, saying the real relationship with Tony Vallelonga was strictly professional, not the close friendship depicted, and that a specific plot point about Shirley being estranged from his family was fabricated.