‘Michael’ Isn’t Slowing Down After Crossing $1 Billion Thanks to International Fans
Music biopics rarely find themselves mentioned in the same breath as summer’s biggest blockbusters, let alone competing directly with them at the top of the annual box office charts. Most entries in the genre have historically struggled to clear even a few hundred million dollars worldwide, making any conversation about a billion-dollar music biopic feel like pure hypothetical territory rather than a realistic outcome.
That conversation stopped being hypothetical this week. ‘Michael‘ entered its twelfth week in theaters sitting at 371.6 million dollars domestically and 620.1 million dollars internationally for a running worldwide total of 991.7 million dollars, putting the milestone within a single strong weekend of Japanese ticket sales.
That final push has now arrived. ‘Michael’ has officially surpassed one billion dollars at the box office, according to The New York Times. The film crossed the milestone as Lionsgate roars back, with the account noting the film’s continued strength in Japan and Russia means the total will keep climbing before the end of summer.
The achievement makes ‘Michael’ just the second film to cross the billion dollar mark in 2026, joining Universal and Illumination’s ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’ which currently sits at roughly 1.008 billion dollars worldwide. Michael’s continued run in Japan carries particular significance, since that territory alone was expected to be the deciding factor in pushing the film past the threshold, aided by a partnership between Lionsgate and Japanese distributor Kino.
The road to this milestone was far from smooth, since the production required roughly 50 million dollars in reshoots after the Jackson estate flagged a key plot point in John Logan’s original screenplay involving one of Jackson’s accusers, who was never meant to be dramatized in the film. Critics largely panned the finished product for sanitizing Jackson’s life story by omitting the child sexual abuse allegations that shadowed his later career, though that criticism did little to slow ticket sales.
The film’s box office math has been remarkably efficient given its budget, running about 6.3 times its reported 155 million dollar production cost according to The Numbers, a return that gives Lionsgate a rare Wall Street-friendly proof point following its formal separation from Starz in May 2025.
‘Michael’ has already become Lionsgate’s highest-grossing release of all time, surpassing 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and the studio is reportedly expected to greenlight at least one additional film covering more of Jackson’s life.
After 'Michael' became the highest-grossing music biopic ever, what do you think about the achievement?
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film stars Jaafar Jackson as his real-life uncle in his acting debut, supported by Colman Domingo and Nia Long as Joe and Katherine Jackson. With ‘Michael’ having already dethroned Bohemian Rhapsody as the highest-grossing music biopic ever made, and Rotten Tomatoes audiences awarding it a 97 percent Verified Hot score despite the critical panning, the film’s billion-dollar milestone looks less like a ceiling and more like a new floor for just how far this late summer surge could still carry it.
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