Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic has moonwalked its way into the record books – and it shows no signs of stopping. Released on April 24, 2026 in the United States, Michael opened to $97.2 million domestically and $218.8 million globally in its debut weekend, the biggest opening in history for any biopic and the best worldwide launch ever for a music film, according to Deadline.
The Lionsgate production, starring Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop in his acting debut, has since surpassed the $300 million worldwide milestone in under two weeks of release, per Screen Rant – making it the second-highest-grossing music biopic ever, behind only Bohemian Rhapsody.
A record-breaking opening that no one saw coming
As per Variety, Michael’s $97.2 million domestic debut surpassed the long-standing biopic record set by Straight Outta Compton’s $60 million opening in 2015 – a milestone that had stood for over a decade at the box office.
It also bested the opening weekends of Bohemian Rhapsody ($51 million) and Elvis, two of the biggest music biopics in box office history. The film had initially been tracking at $50–60 million domestically, per Deadline, making the final result a staggering overperformance.
Internationally, Universal Pictures – which took on foreign distribution rights – oversaw a $121.6 million launch from 84 markets, setting new music biopic records in 63 of them, including the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Brazil.
IMAX screens alone contributed $24.5 million globally, the format’s biggest-ever start for a music biopic, according to Variety. The opening weekend also marked Lionsgate’s biggest debut since The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 in 2015.
Audiences keep coming despite the critical cold shoulder
The film’s runaway commercial success has come in spite of – not because of – its critical reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 37% of reviews were positive, with critics largely praising Jaafar Jackson’s performance while calling the screenplay sanitised and surface-level.
Metacritic assigned it a score of 39 out of 100, indicating generally unfavourable reviews. Audiences, however, have told a very different story. Those surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an A– grade, while PostTrak reported a 90% positive audience score, with 84% saying they would definitely recommend it.
The pattern echoes the audience-versus-critics divide that propelled Bohemian Rhapsody to $911 million worldwide. Michael carries a production budget of up to $200 million – one of the most expensive biopics ever made – following reshoots in June 2025 that removed all depictions of the 1993 child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson, after a clause in a legal settlement was discovered barring their portrayal, reports Variety.
With the film now past $300 million worldwide after just 10 days, Lionsgate is widely expected to greenlight a sequel – and the film’s closing title card, reading “His story continues,” already signals as much.