‘Michael’ Is About To Cross $1 Billion, And the Jackson Biopic Just Keeps Rewriting Box Office History

Music biopics have historically struggled to break into truly elite box office territory, usually peaking in the hundreds of millions before fading out of theaters. That pattern has been completely upended this year by a film that just kept climbing week after week, long past the point when most studio releases would have quietly disappeared from multiplexes.

‘Michael,’ the Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic centered on the life of Michael Jackson, opened back in April with a record-breaking global weekend of 217 million dollars, immediately signaling that this was not going to be a typical run for a genre that rarely produces genuine blockbusters. The film stars Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s real-life nephew, in the title role, tracing the singer’s journey from his earliest days performing with the Jackson 5 through the peak of his solo career and the making of hits like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.”

That momentum has now pushed the film to the doorstep of one of cinema’s most exclusive milestones. ‘Michael’ has crossed 989.1 million dollars at the global box office, putting it on the verge of becoming just the second film to cross the billion-dollar mark in 2026, trailing only Universal’s ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ for that distinction this year.

The road to this number has been built on a rare combination of massive domestic turnout and even stronger international performance. The film has earned roughly 358.6 million dollars domestically alongside more than 600 million dollars internationally, with particularly strong runs in markets including Japan, the United Kingdom, and Brazil helping keep the film’s daily earnings remarkably steady long after its opening weekend.

Along the way, ‘Michael’ has already rewritten the record books for its genre more than once. It first overtook ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to become the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, then went on to surpass Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ to claim the title of highest-grossing biopic ever made, regardless of subject matter, a milestone confirmed by a Lionsgate representative to Rolling Stone. That places ‘Michael’ ahead of two of the most commercially dominant biographical films of the last decade.

The film’s path to release was far from smooth. Reshoots costing as much as 50 million dollars were required after the Jackson estate flagged a legal issue tied to a settlement clause prohibiting the depiction of accuser Jordan Chandler, forcing the production to rework its entire third act and ultimately shift the story’s ending to focus on Jackson’s preparation for his 1987 Bad tour rather than the allegations that originally closed out the script.

That creative pivot has not been without controversy. Critics and commentators have pointed to the film’s narrower scope as a significant limitation, with some accusing the production of softening Jackson’s story for a new generation of viewers, while Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson has publicly stated that her script notes were disregarded during the process. Michael’s sister Janet Jackson also chose not to be depicted in the film and does not appear in the story.

Despite that friction, box office audiences have shown little hesitation, and the film’s commercial success has coincided with a notable surge in Jackson’s streaming numbers following its release. Reviews have remained mixed rather than universally glowing, with some critics describing the storytelling as simplistic, but that has done little to slow the film’s momentum at the box office.

With the film ending on the on-screen text “The Story Continues,” speculation about a sequel covering the later chapters of Jackson’s life has only grown louder as ‘Michael’ inches closer to the billion-dollar threshold. Whichever way that story eventually gets told, this first installment has already secured its place as one of the most commercially dominant biographical films ever released.

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