‘Michael’ Just Made Box Office History, and Jaafar Jackson’s Dedication to His Uncle Shows Why
Biopics rarely turn into genuine blockbusters, but ‘Michael‘ has spent the past three months proving that rule wrong. The film, which stars Michael Jackson’s real life nephew Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop, opened in theaters on April 24 after defying scathing reviews and modest pre release projections to earn $97.2 million from 3,955 North American theaters in its opening weekend.
That kind of start hinted at something bigger, and the momentum never really slowed down. Combined with its worldwide ticket sales, ‘Michael’ earned more than $217 million globally in its first three day frame, a record breaking debut for the genre. From there the film kept climbing past milestone after milestone rather than fading the way most music biopics do once the opening weekend buzz wears off.
According to industry account chart radar on X, ‘Michael’ has now become the first and fastest biopic in history to cross $1 billion at the global box office, a claim that lines up with reporting on the film’s trajectory in recent days. According to Box Office Mojo, the film had grossed $991.4 million worldwide as of July 6, 2026, with $371.2 million coming domestically and $620.1 million from international markets.
Japan’s June 12 release through Kino Films alone contributed $24.4 million to that international haul, underscoring just how far Jackson’s fan base still reaches nearly seventeen years after his death.
The billion dollar milestone caps off a run that already rewrote biopic history twice over. On June 14, ‘Michael’ surpassed ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to become the highest grossing music biopic of all time, and it later overtook ‘Oppenheimer’ on June 28 to claim the title of highest grossing biographical film ever made. The film also became Lionsgate’s highest grossing release, surpassing ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’, and currently ranks as the second highest grossing film of 2026 behind only ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’.
The chart radar post also points to Michael Jackson extending his record as the most awarded legacy artist in Guinness World Records history, a fitting companion to the film’s success. Jackson holds 39 Guinness World Records, including the title of Most Successful Entertainer of All Time, a distinction built over decades that the biopic’s success is now reintroducing to a younger generation of fans discovering his catalog for the first time.
That renewed attention has spilled directly into music streaming as well. Jackson’s solo work earned a career best 137.5 million official on demand streams during the film’s opening week, up 146 percent from his previous career high, according to Billboard, while his Jackson 5 and Jacksons material generated 10.1 million streams that same week, up 135 percent from the prior week.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, ‘Michael’ had a famously difficult path to release, including costly reshoots tied to a legal dispute with the Jackson estate, yet none of that friction seems to have slowed audiences down. With the film’s ending hinting at a continuation of Jackson’s story and a sequel already reported to be in development, the King of Pop’s box office reign shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Do you think ‘Michael’ deserves its place atop the biopic record books, or does its billion dollar run leave you wanting the sequel even more?
