‘Michael’ Just Made History at the Box Office, Dethroning ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in North America
Few biopics in recent memory have carried as much commercial weight as the Michael Jackson film ‘Michael,’ and fewer still have delivered on that weight so convincingly. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring the late King of Pop’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson in his acting debut, the Lionsgate production arrived in theaters as one of the most scrutinized releases of the year, facing both massive expectations and a wave of critical skepticism that did little to slow the lines at multiplexes around the world.
The film carries a production budget in the range of $155 to $200 million, with costs split between Lionsgate, Universal Pictures on the international side, and the Michael Jackson estate. That kind of financial commitment demanded a proportionally massive return, and the opening weekend made a strong case that the gamble would pay off. Its domestic debut of $97 million ranks as the single biggest opening in history for a music biopic, shattering the record previously held by ‘Straight Outta Compton,’ while globally the film launched to $218.8 million, itself a new record for the genre.
By its third weekend, the conversation had shifted entirely. Lionsgate announced that ‘Michael’ is expected to close out that frame with a cumulative global total of approximately $570 million, comprising roughly $238.9 million from domestic theaters and $331.1 million from international markets. That has simultaneously made it the second music biopic ever to surpass the $500 million global milestone, after ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ and the all-time No. 1 music biopic in North American box office history, passing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’s $216.7 million domestic total.
The Queen biopic, which won four Oscars and remains the highest-grossing music biopic of all time worldwide with a cumulative global gross of $903.6 million, is still well ahead globally, but ‘Michael’ is tracking more favorably in terms of its weekly holds. Its projected third-weekend domestic drop of just 36 percent compares well against ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’s 48.6 percent fall at the same stage of its run.
The film’s audience support has remained remarkably strong despite a deeply divided critical reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, 39 percent of critics’ reviews are currently positive, with the consensus praising Jaafar Jackson’s performance while criticizing the overall film as a sanitized portrait that omits meaningful engagement with the most controversial chapters of its subject’s life. That omission was not entirely a creative choice. Producers discovered a clause in a legal settlement with an accuser that barred the depiction or mention of the individual in film or television, forcing a significant overhaul of the third act and pushing the budget well above its original estimates.
With a Part 2 almost certainly in the cards for Lionsgate, and Jackson’s catalog surging in commercial value following the film’s release, the broader franchise picture is only beginning to take shape. For now, the story belongs to a biopic that critics largely dismissed and audiences emphatically embraced, one that has redrawn the boundaries of what a music biopic can earn at the box office.
If ‘Michael’ keeps holding at this rate, the conversation about whether it can eventually match ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’s total global haul may be more serious than anyone initially expected — so where do you think the King of Pop’s story goes from here, and are you hoping to see a sequel pick up where this one left off?
