Michael Jackson Biopic ‘Michael’ Is on the Verge of a Billion Dollar Box Office Milestone

The King of Pop’s long-awaited biopic has spent months turning heads at the box office, and its theatrical run shows no signs of slowing down even as summer blockbuster season heats up. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, ‘Michael‘ has become one of the defining box office stories of the year.

The film traces Jackson’s rise from his childhood days performing with the Jackson 5 through his transformation into the undisputed King of Pop, built around thirteen of his most iconic songs. Its road to release was anything but smooth, with Lionsgate forced into a costly round of reshoots after the Jackson estate flagged a settlement clause that barred any depiction of one of the singer’s accusers, pushing the film’s debut back by nearly a year.

None of that turbulence appears to have slowed audiences down. ‘Michael’ has now grossed 977 million dollars worldwide since its April 24 debut, officially overtaking Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” to become the highest-grossing biopic in film history, and it remains on track to become the first biographical film ever to cross the billion-dollar mark.

The numbers behind that milestone are staggering for a film built entirely around one artist’s life story. ‘Michael’ opened with a record-breaking 217 million dollars globally its first weekend, and has since pulled in 370 million dollars domestically alongside roughly 607 million dollars internationally, fueled by especially strong turnouts in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. That international strength has been key to the film’s staying power, with the movie continuing to post daily earnings well after most studio releases would have faded from theaters.

The film has already cleared several major milestones on its way toward a billion dollars. It surpassed “Bohemian Rhapsody” to become the highest-grossing music biopic ever made, a record that Freddie Mercury’s story had held since 2018, and it also became Lionsgate’s highest-grossing release of all time, passing “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in the process.

That box office dominance stands in sharp contrast to the film’s reception among professional critics, who have been far more divided on the movie than ticket-buying audiences. ‘Michael’ holds a critics’ score in the high thirties on Rotten Tomatoes, largely tied to the film’s decision to omit the child sexual abuse allegations that shadowed Jackson’s life, yet it boasts a remarkable 97 percent audience score on the same site, reflecting just how disconnected professional reviews have been from actual moviegoer response.

That gap has not gone unnoticed by the people who made the film. Longtime Jackson estate attorney John Branca addressed the disconnect directly, saying the movie delivered great storytelling and powerful performances even if it wasn’t the film that most critics wanted to see, and that audiences ultimately spoke for themselves at the box office, according to remarks he shared with the Hudson Valley Press.

Jaafar Jackson’s performance in particular has become a central talking point in coverage of the film’s success, marking his acting debut in a role that carries enormous personal and cultural weight given his family connection to the subject. Colman Domingo and Nia Long round out the film playing Jackson’s parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson, alongside supporting turns from Miles Teller and Laura Harrier.

The film’s box office run has also translated directly into a resurgence for Jackson’s music catalog, with streams of his songs nearly doubling in the days following the film’s wide release. That crossover impact matters significantly for Sony Music, which acquired a large stake in Jackson’s catalog in a deal valuing his rights at up to 1.5 billion dollars, meaning the film’s success is paying dividends well beyond the box office itself.

With its theatrical run continuing in Japan and other international markets, ‘Michael’ now sits within striking distance of becoming the first biopic in cinema history to cross a billion dollars worldwide. Lionsgate is already reportedly eyeing at least one more film chronicling additional chapters of Jackson’s life, suggesting the studio sees this box office run as the beginning of a much longer story rather than a one-off event.

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