‘Michael’ Just Refuses to Slow Down Globally, and the King of Pop’s Box Office Reign Keeps Getting Weirder

Most theatrical releases follow a predictable rhythm, a big opening weekend followed by a steady decline until the film quietly exits multiplexes within a month or two. The Michael Jackson biopic ‘Michael‘ has spent months completely ignoring that script, and its latest performance in Russia is only reinforcing just how unusual this theatrical run has become.

The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, has already rewritten box office record books multiple times since its April release. It first overtook ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to become the highest-grossing music biopic ever made, then went on to surpass Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ to claim the title of highest-grossing biographical film of any kind, a milestone confirmed by a Lionsgate representative.

That momentum has now stretched all the way into a sixth weekend of release in Russia, where the film continues to hold the number one spot at the local box office. ‘Michael’ grossed 1.5 million dollars over its sixth four-day weekend there, a drop of just 14 percent from the previous frame, following a strong 440,000 dollar Sunday across 854 theaters, even as the venue count contracted slightly by 166 locations.

Those numbers push the film’s cumulative Russian total to 22.5 million dollars from 3.2 million admissions so far, with early pre-sales for the following Monday already sitting at 25,000 dollars. Analysts tracking the market are now projecting a total Russian theatrical run somewhere between 24 million and 28 million dollars, a remarkable outcome for a film that only became the first release of the year to surpass 20 million dollars in that market a few weeks earlier.

Russia’s steady performance is part of a broader pattern that has defined ‘Michael’ since its opening weekend, when the film debuted with 97.2 million dollars domestically and more than 217 million dollars worldwide, setting records for the biggest opening ever for a biographical musical film. Nearly 60 percent of the movie’s global total has come from markets outside the United States and Canada, with territories including the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan all posting numbers that have already surpassed what ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ managed in those same countries.

That international dominance has helped push the film’s worldwide total to the doorstep of a billion dollars, putting it on track to become just the second release to hit that milestone in 2026 behind Universal’s ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie.’ Jackson estate co-executor John Branca described the project as something more than a typical music film, telling The Washington Informer that this marked the first opportunity for Michael’s own story to be told directly rather than filtered through outside narratives.

The film has not been without controversy along the way. Reports detailed how Lionsgate was forced to spend as much as 50 million dollars on reshoots after the Jackson estate flagged a legal issue tied to a settlement agreement that prohibited accuser Jordan Chandler from being depicted on screen, forcing a rework of the film’s entire third act and shifting its ending toward Jackson’s preparation for his 1987 Bad tour instead.

Despite mixed critical reception and public criticism from figures including Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson, who said her script notes were disregarded during production, audiences around the world have shown little hesitation in turning out repeatedly for the film. Branca has already confirmed that a sequel exploring later chapters of Jackson’s career, potentially including the Dangerous era and his Super Bowl halftime performance, has been part of the plan from the very beginning.

With Russia continuing to defy typical box office decay curves and the film’s global total closing in on the billion-dollar threshold, ‘Michael’ shows no signs of following the usual playbook anytime soon. Whatever combination of nostalgia, cultural fascination, and word of mouth is driving these numbers, it has turned into one of the most unusual theatrical success stories in recent memory.

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