On Monday, November 22, 2010, the filming for the official video began in Tustin, California, a main filming location being the airship hangars at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin. There was a casting call posted up on Jackson's official website, saying that they were "looking for his fans of all ages who want to be a part of this iconic event." On December 4, 2010, a 30-second teaser of the video was released on Michael Jackson's official YouTube channel and the official website. It featured clips from Jackson's Live In Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour DVD and clips of fans dancing. The video debuted at midnight December 9, 2010 on websites worldwide. The video showed Jackson in concert from Dangerous World Tour in Bucharest and HIStory World Tour in Munich, Akon singing and children dancing in the dress of Jackson, as well as sentimental scenes of children, families, and elderly people holding hands and a woman weeping. The video was directed by Mark Pellington.

Jackson's official website announced a music video for Hollywood Tonight. While expected originally to be released at the end of February, it was later pushed back to March 10, 2011. A 19-second sneak preview of the video was made available on Jackson's official Facebook page. On March 10, as expected the full video was released with a new mix called Throwback Remix, featuring alternate demo vocals without autotune, sampling the beat of Billie Jean and removing the spoken word bridge.

The video was directed by Wayne Isham, who previously directed the video for Jackson's 1995 number-one hit You Are Not Alone. It was shot in front of the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California.

The lead dancer in the video is Sofia Boutella, who wears an outfit inspired by Jackson's stage costumes. More than 60 dancers performed a Jackson-inspired routine as seen in a video posted by TMZ. The video revolves around a young woman arriving in Hollywood, vying to become a known dancer. It also includes images of Jackson from the music videos for Black Or White, Billie Jean, Jam, Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and In The Closet.

On February 28, 2011, a project for this song's music video titled Behind The Mask Project was announced: "the Estate of Michael Jackson and Sony Music will provide everyone who likes music an opportunity to help create online a unique groundbreaking music video for the single Behind The Mask." All the world can use a simple online tool to take part in making the music video since March 7, 2011. On March 30, 2011, a 17-second video of what Sony Music had been doing with some of the thousands of submissions for the Behind The Mask Project was released.

On June 6, 2011, the official trailer announcing a date the final video would be published was shared. On June 14, 2011, the official and final video was posted on the official Michael Jackson YouTube channel, but only accessible on Jackson's Facebook page. The 1600 clips that compose the Behind The Mask music video, shows fans from all around the world dancing and celebrating Michael.

An alternate video was originally shot and completed, featuring masked dancers in a nightclub, but the Behind The Mask Project was released instead of this video. This alternate video directed by the Grammy-winning directing duo Aggressive leaked on July 31, 2013. The video was eventually uploaded to Jackson's YouTube channel on August 3, 2018.