‘Michael’ Breaks Records as It Becomes the Biggest Music Biopic Ever

Michael has reached another major box office milestone and it is now officially one of the biggest music biopics ever made. According to Deadline, the film has crossed $911.9 million worldwide during its eighth weekend in theaters. This makes it the highest-grossing music biopic in history, beating 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which previously held the record with $911.03 million.

The film tells the story of Michael Jackson and is led by Jaafar Jackson, who is the real-life nephew of the music icon. Even before release, the movie faced criticism over how it handles parts of Jackson’s life, especially the decision to avoid focusing heavily on allegations of child sexual abuse. Despite that controversy, audiences around the world have turned it into a massive commercial success.

The report notes that Michael has now become the second highest-grossing film of 2026 so far, only behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It has also set new records for everyone involved in its production. It is the highest-grossing film ever released by Lionsgate, surpassing The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Director Antoine Fuqua also now has his biggest box office hit, beating his previous record with King Arthur from 2004.

The biopic’s global performance puts it in a very small group of music-themed films that have crossed major financial thresholds. Only Bohemian Rhapsody and Michael have ever passed $300 million worldwide in the music biopic genre. Other well-known entries like Elvis (2022), which made $288.7 million, and Straight Outta Compton (2015), which made $201.6 million, remain below that level.

Industry reporting suggests that Michael still has room to grow internationally. The film only recently opened in Japan on June 12, and its global rollout is not fully complete. Because of that, analysts believe it still has a chance to become the first music biopic ever to pass $1 billion worldwide.

If it reaches that milestone, it would become one of the biggest cultural hits of the decade. It would also be the second film of 2026 to cross $1 billion, again behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. On top of that, it would rank among the highest-grossing biopics of all time, surpassing even Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer from 2023.

The financial success is especially notable given the film’s reported production budget of around $155 to $200 million. Even by standard box office rules, where a film often needs to earn about two and a half times its budget to break even, Michael appears to be well beyond that point. Reports also suggest that Lionsgate covered a large portion of the costs through international pre-sales, meaning the film’s profitability may be even higher than typical box office math suggests.

At this point, it is unclear whether any upcoming music biopic will be able to match its performance. Several projects are in development, including films based on Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi, and Dionne Warwick. However, none currently appear positioned to reach the same level of global appeal.

One major future competitor could be Sam Mendes’ planned Beatles project, which will consist of four separate films released together in 2028, each focusing on a different member of the band. However, even with the global popularity of The Beatles, splitting the story into four releases could divide audiences rather than concentrate them into a single box office powerhouse.

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