‘Michael’ Becomes the First Biopic to Ever Reach $1 Billion, Dethroning ‘Oppenheimer’ With a Historic Global Run
When Antoine Fuqua’s ‘Michael’ opened in late April to a record-shattering global debut, the ambition was clear. The film launched with a $97.2 million domestic opening and a $121.6 million international launch, combining for a global debut of $218.8 million, a number that instantly rewrote every benchmark the music biopic genre had ever set. For a film centered on the undisputed King of Pop, an extraordinary start felt almost inevitable, but what followed in the weeks after has been something else entirely.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan, the Lionsgate and Universal co-production features Jaafar Jackson in the title role, the real-life nephew of Michael Jackson bringing an uncanny authenticity to the performance that critics and fans alike have singled out even amid a divided reception. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who praised Jaafar’s performance but criticized the story as “sanitized,” a tension that did nothing to slow the film’s momentum at the box office.
The record that now defines ‘Michael’s’ place in cinema history arrived this weekend. The film has surpassed ‘Oppenheimer’ as the highest-grossing biopic of all time, accumulating $607.2 million overseas and $370.2 million domestically for a combined global total of $977 million. Christopher Nolan’s Best Picture winner ‘Oppenheimer’ had held that record with $975.8 million globally, a figure that once seemed almost impossible to surpass for a film rooted in serious historical drama. ‘Michael’ has surpassed it with room to spare.
By crossing this total, ‘Michael’ becomes the all-time highest-grossing biopic about any type of historical figure, not just musicians. It is a distinction that carries enormous weight in an industry where the genre has long been considered a reliable but ceiling-capped category. The studio faced great challenges in making the movie, forced to undertake $50 million in reshoots after the Jackson estate identified a key issue with a plot point concerning one of his accusers who was never supposed to be dramatized in the film. That turbulence makes the commercial result all the more striking.
An additional layer to the story is producer Graham King, who also produced ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ meaning King has now beaten his own all-time box office record in the music biopic genre. In 40 international markets, including Brazil, France, and Mexico, ‘Michael’ has already surpassed the entire lifetime gross of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ The film has also been made available on digital platforms, where it can be rented or purchased on services like Prime Video and Apple TV, suggesting its cultural footprint will only grow beyond the theatrical window.
The anticipation now is that the movie will reach one billion dollars worldwide, which would make it the second film to cross that threshold in 2026 after Universal and Illumination’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie. With Japan and Russia cited as markets still delivering strong returns, the billion-dollar milestone appears locked in for July. Box office analyst @Luiz_Fernando_J projects a final run somewhere between $1 billion and $1.05 billion, a range that would cement ‘Michael’ as not just the biggest biopic ever made, but the only one to ever reach ten figures.
With the King of Pop now officially sitting atop cinema history, the question worth debating is whether any future music biopic could ever realistically challenge what ‘Michael’ has accomplished, or whether this record, unlike so many before it, is built to last.
