‘Michael’ Is Rewriting Box Office History Country by Country
The ‘Michael’ Jackson biopic is not merely a hit. It has become a genuine global phenomenon. Fresh data from Russia, Brazil, and Japan suggests it still has significant runway left.
With the film now tracking to become the first official Hollywood release of the year to cross $20 million in Russia, sitting atop Brazil’s yearly chart, and dropping only around ten percent in its Japanese debut weekend, the momentum behind Antoine Fuqua’s biographical epic shows no meaningful signs of slowing down.
The film has already dethroned ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, crossing $911.9 million worldwide, with $358.6 million earned domestically and $553.3 million internationally. The film set a string of records along the way, including the largest global opening weekend ever for a music biopic, the highest-grossing domestic biopic of all time, and the most successful biopic in French history, surpassing ‘La Vie en Rose.’
Japan was the major remaining territory that had yet to open when the film crossed Bohemian Rhapsody’s total, and analysts noted it could be the market that pushes ‘Michael’ past the billion-dollar mark, which would make it only the second film to cross that threshold at the global box office this year, behind ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.’
The film is directed by Antoine Fuqua from a screenplay by John Logan. It stars Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role alongside Colman Domingo as Joseph Jackson, Nia Long as Katherine Scruse-Jackson, Miles Teller as John Branca, and Mike Myers as record executive Walter Yetnikoff.
Critics have been largely harsh on the film, which currently holds a 39 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, largely due to the decision to exclude any reference to the abuse allegations made against Jackson. Despite those reviews, audiences have embraced it warmly, with the film dropping just 44 percent in its second weekend, a retention rate that would be considered exceptional for any release.
The road to release was turbulent. Lionsgate was forced into $50 million worth of reshoots after the Jackson estate flagged a key plot point in the original screenplay involving one of Jackson’s accusers, who was never intended to be dramatized in the film. The final cut ends with Michael at the beginning of the Bad World Tour, before the first allegations arose.
What makes the global performance genuinely remarkable is how evenly the enthusiasm has spread. Whether in France, Brazil, or now Japan, audiences have turned out in numbers that suggest the pull of Jackson’s legacy operates on a frequency that transcends geography, controversy, and critical opinion in equal measure.
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