‘Michael’ Just Refused to Succumb at the Japan Box Office, and Even ‘Toy Story 5’ Couldn’t Do Anything About It
Summer 2026 has turned into a genuinely strange season for Hollywood in Japan, where animated giants and biographical dramas are duking it out for the same audiences. Family franchises usually dominate this stretch without much resistance, and ‘Toy Story 5‘ arrived expecting exactly that kind of runaway success. Instead, it’s sharing the spotlight with a film about a music legend who’s been gone for over a decade.
‘Michael‘ has spent its entire theatrical run defying expectations. The Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic has grossed 977 million dollars worldwide since its April debut, officially overtaking Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ to become the highest-grossing biopic in film history, and Japan has been one of its most loyal markets from the start.
According to box office tracker Luiz Fernando, ‘Michael’ pulled in an estimated 1.4 million dollars on its fourth Saturday in Japanese theaters, a modest 17.6 percent drop from the previous Saturday that pushed its cumulative gross in the country to 29.3 million dollars. That kind of staying power in a fourth weekend is rare for any release, let alone one competing directly against a new Pixar sequel.
Fernando’s tracking also notes that ‘Michael’ is riding overwhelmingly positive word of mouth in Japan, positioning it as the third highest grossing Hollywood release of 2026 in the country, with ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ now within reach for the number two spot. Japan has proven to be an especially receptive market for Jackson’s story, and that pattern isn’t new.
Japan has historically outperformed expectations for Jackson-related releases compared to other international markets, a trend that traces back to the Kenny Ortega-directed documentary ‘This Is It,’ which found a devoted audience there back in 2009. The film’s big opening weekend in Japan came as no surprise given how enormous Jackson’s fan base is in the country, and that fanbase has clearly kept showing up week after week.
The film’s global numbers help explain why every territory still matters this deep into its run. ‘Michael’ has already dethroned ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as the highest-grossing music biopic ever made, crossing 911.9 million dollars worldwide, with 358.6 million domestically and 553.3 million internationally.
Reception has been anything but uniform though, since the film holds a critics’ score in the high thirties on Rotten Tomatoes while boasting a remarkable 97 percent audience score on the same site.
That gap has become part of the film’s story as much as its box office run. Jaafar Jackson’s performance as his uncle has become a central talking point in coverage, marking his acting debut in a role carrying enormous personal and cultural weight, alongside Colman Domingo and Nia Long as Joe and Katherine Jackson and supporting turns from Miles Teller and Laura Harrier.
With a fourth weekend in the 3.1 to 3.5 million dollar range reportedly in sight, ‘Michael’ shows no signs of stepping aside for ‘Toy Story 5’ just yet. Do you think ‘Michael’ can actually catch ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ in Japan before its run winds down?
