‘Michael’ Just Dethroned ‘Oppenheimer’ as the Highest-Grossing Biopic Ever — and the Numbers Are Staggering
The biopic genre has long been a reliable prestige play in Hollywood, but rarely does it generate the kind of cultural frenzy that sends audiences back to theaters week after week. In recent years, a handful of life-story films have transcended their subjects to become genuine box office phenomena, reshaping the boundaries of what the genre can commercially achieve.
For a long time, that ceiling belonged to Christopher Nolan. His 2023 epic ‘Oppenheimer’ ended its theatrical run with a global total of $912.7 million, surpassing the previous record held by ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and cementing itself as the highest-grossing biopic of all time. The achievement felt nearly unassailable, a once-in-a-generation box office performance built around a three-hour, R-rated story about a physicist and a bomb.
That record, however, has now fallen. The Michael Jackson biopic ‘Michael’ has officially become the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, hitting a cumulative worldwide gross of $911.9 million at the beginning of its eighth weekend in theaters, according to Deadline. The film arrived in Japan on the same day it crossed the milestone, a territory that could push it toward becoming the second title to cross $1 billion at the 2026 global box office, after Universal’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, ‘Michael’ stars Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, alongside a cast that includes Nia Long, Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, and Laura Harrier. The film earned the best domestic debut in history for a music biopic, with its $97.2 million opening weekend trouncing the previous record held by ‘Straight Outta Compton,’ which opened to $60.2 million in 2015.
The path to this historic milestone was far from smooth. Lionsgate was forced into $50 million in reshoots after the Jackson estate identified a problem with the original screenplay involving one of Jackson’s accusers, who was never intended to appear in the film. Despite that production turbulence, and despite the film carrying only a 39% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences responded in kind with a stellar 97% audience score, a disparity that speaks to the enormous emotional appetite fans brought to the film.
Adding another layer to the story is producer Graham King, who also produced ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ meaning King has now beaten his own all-time 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,’ and it became the most successful biopic ever released in France, overtaking the beloved Édith Piaf drama ‘La Vie en Rose.’
The conversation around whether ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Michael’ deserves the crown at the very top of the all-time biopic chart is a nuanced one, given the difference in their subjects and the years in which they performed. What is indisputable is that the King of Pop’s story has proven as irresistible to global moviegoers as a nuclear scientist’s, and that the biopic genre is in a remarkable era of commercial ambition. Both ‘Michael’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ remain the only two music biopics ever to have grossed more than $300 million worldwide, with the next closest entries being ‘Elvis’ at $288.7 million and ‘Straight Outta Compton’ at $201.6 million.
Whether you believe Jaafar Jackson’s performance deserves to stand alongside Cillian Murphy’s Oscar-winning turn as J. Robert Oppenheimer, or whether you think ‘Michael’ earning a spot at the very top of the biopic box office chart rewrites how Hollywood will greenlight these stories going forward, is a debate worth having in the comments.
