Michael Just Overtook a Major Rival to Become 2026’s Second Biggest Hollywood Movie

Japan has become one of the defining subplots of this year’s global box office race, a market where audiences have consistently rewarded certain films with staying power that other territories simply haven’t matched. That pattern has held true across genres, from animated blockbusters to star-studded sequels, but no story has proven more durable this year than a music biopic nobody initially expected to dominate for months on end.

According to Box Office Mojo, ‘Michael‘ had already crossed 991.4 million dollars worldwide as of July 6, powered by 371.2 million dollars domestically and 620.1 million dollars internationally, putting it within reach of a milestone no musical biopic has ever touched. Japan has played an outsized role in that climb, consistently outperforming typical weekend-to-weekend drop-off patterns that usually plague films this deep into their theatrical run.

That trend hit a new milestone this week. Analyst Luiz Fernando reported that ‘Michael’ has now overtaken ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ to become the second highest-grossing Hollywood release of 2026 in Japan, with the film pulling in an estimated 1.1 million dollars on its fifth Saturday, only a 19.8 percent drop from the previous Saturday, pushing its cumulative total to roughly 34.3 million dollars and 3.8 million admissions.

The worldwide top five at the 2026 box office currently stands with ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ just over a billion dollars, followed by ‘Michael’ closing in on that mark, with ‘Project Hail Mary,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2,’ and ‘Pegasus 3’ rounding out the rest of the field. ‘Michael’ returned to number one at the domestic box office in its fourth weekend with 26.1 million dollars, making it only the second film this year to clear 700 million dollars globally at that point, trailing only Super Mario Galaxy.

Jackson’s connection to Japan runs especially deep, with his 2009 concert documentary This Is It earning 57 million dollars in the country alone, representing 21 percent of that film’s entire global gross, a history industry watchers have repeatedly cited as a key driver behind the biopic’s staying power there. The Devil Wears Prada 2 previously edged Michael out during its own opening weekend in Japan by a narrow 6.3 million dollars to 6.1 million dollars margin, making this overtake a meaningful reversal.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson as his real-life uncle, with Juliano Valdi playing a younger version of the singer, the film carries a production budget between 155 million and 200 million dollars following reshoots completed in June 2025. Critics have remained lukewarm throughout the run, giving the film a 38 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, a sharp contrast to the audience response that has kept theaters full months into release.

With this weekend’s projected three-day total sitting around 2.8 million dollars, ‘Michael’ shows no signs of slowing its pursuit of Japan’s top spot, currently held by ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.’ Between its historic global run and this kind of sustained momentum in one of the world’s most passionate Jackson fan bases, the film looks increasingly likely to keep rewriting box office expectations well into its sixth month of release.

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