‘Michael’ Rewrites Lionsgate History With $900M Box Office Milestone, Becoming the Studio’s Biggest Hit Ever

The Michael Jackson biopic ‘Michael’ has officially cemented itself as the most commercially successful film in Lionsgate’s history, crossing the $900 million mark at the worldwide box office and reshuffling a studio record chart that once belonged entirely to dystopian franchises and vampire romances. The achievement puts the film in a league shared by only a handful of biopics in cinema history.

‘Michael’ debuted in theaters on April 24 to a record-setting $97 million domestically and $217 million globally in its opening weekend, marking the best start of all time for a biopic and dwarfing the opening of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which launched to just $51 million before earning $910 million worldwide over its full run.

The film has now crossed $911.9 million worldwide, overtaking ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to become the highest-grossing musical biopic ever made. It has also become the second highest-grossing film of the year so far, trailing only ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’, and marks the biggest box office result of director Antoine Fuqua’s career.

The film stars Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, with a cast that also includes Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, and Kendrick Sampson. The project was brought together by producer Graham King, who recruited screenwriter John Logan and Fuqua, a director who built his early career directing music videos for artists including Prince and Stevie Wonder.

The road to theaters was far from smooth. The film had to reshoot its entire third act due to a legal issue connected to one of the people who accused Jackson of sexual abuse. The settlement Jackson’s estate had reached with Jordan Chandler included a clause preventing Chandler from being depicted in any film about Jackson’s life, a legal detail the estate had overlooked during production. The estate absorbed an additional $50 million in reshoot costs, bringing the film’s total net production budget to approximately $200 million.

Despite mixed critical reception, audiences have responded enthusiastically, with the film surpassing prior Lionsgate all-time leaders ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ and ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ on the studio’s all-time global chart. Universal handled overseas distribution for the film across most international markets, while Lionsgate retained domestic rights and select territories.

With the film’s momentum still building and a sequel reportedly in early development, Lionsgate appears to have found its new flagship franchise in the story of the King of Pop.

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