In a history-making moonwalk, Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic is launching light-years ahead of expectations at the domestic box office, with a projected $94 million-$100 million domestic opening and a global launch north of $200 million.

Michael had a super-sized victory for Lionsgate, and its biggest opening in years. The mini-major studio is understandably attempting to manage expectations by giving a wider domestic opening range of $90 million to $100 million. But it’s hard for rival studios — who are rooting for Lionsgate — to contain their excitement. The movie grossed a super-sized $38.5 million on Friday alone, its official opening day, as audience exit scores quickly went platinum and the film attracted virtually every demo, led by Black and female moviegoers. (So much for all the chatter about generally bad reviews.)

Overseas — where Jackson is an even bigger draw — Michael is likewise off to a record-breaking start for an opening in the $114 million range. One exception is Japan, where Jackson’s fanbase is enormous. (The 2011 Michael Jackson posthumous concert doc This Is It earned $196 million at the foreign office; Japan’s contribution was $57 million).

Heading into the weekend, Michael was tracking to open in the $65 million-$70 million range domestically, which would already have been enough to boast the biggest opening of all time for a music biopic, not adjusted for inflation. The current record-holder is Universal’s Straight Outta Compton ($60.1 million), followed by Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody ($55 million).

It’s also one of the biggest biopic openings of all time for any biopic. Other noteworthy victories: it’s also going to pass up Project Hail Mary to score the top domestic opening of 2026 for a non-franchise, non-tentpole, and is the sixth-biggest opening in the history of Lionsgate behind the first four Hunger Games installments and Summit’s final Twilight movie.

An inkling of Michael‘s potential was revealed when the film earned $12.6 million from Wednesday and Thursday previews, on par with 2026 sleeper blockbuster Hail Mary, and ahead of such event pics including Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer, which both reported preview grosses in the $10 million range.

The big unknown was how front-loaded Michael would be. By Saturday, it was clear it wasn’t just appointment viewing for hard-core fans. Strong word of mouth is magic: the film was graced with a 96 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — the best ever for the genre — PostTrak exit scores in the low 90s, and a definite recommend of 85 percent (those levels are rarely seen). It didn’t earn a perfect grade on CinemaScore, but it did earn a good enough A-.

Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson in Michael.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Nearly 40 percent of the film’s gross is coming from Imax and other premium large-format screens.

On Thursday, headlines focused on Michael‘s worrisome RT critics’ score, which bounced between 29 percent and 33 percent. By Thursday night, the critics’ score had risen to 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While that’s far from ideal, strong audience exits make up for it. Black moviegoers vastly over indexed, making up 38 percent of opening-day ticket buyers, but the movie succeeded in playing to a relatively diverse audience, with Latinos accounting for 26 percent of Friday’s audience, followed by white moviegoers at 26 percent, according to one snapshot provided by PostTrak.

Michael’s road to the big screen was long, and hit a major delay when the decision was made by King, Lionsgate and the Jackson Estate to opt for avoiding a legal challenge and end the movie before the superstar became engulfed in allegations of child sexual abuse. While rumors began swirling in the very latter part of the 1980s, the first public accusation didn’t emerge until 1993. The film’s initial budget of $155 million came in closer to $200 million after tens of millions were spent on additional photography needed to rejigger the third act. While there’s rampant talk of a sequel, some question whether it will really happen, since it would be impossible to avoid the darker years that followed.

The Jackson 5 in Antoine Fuqua’s Michael.

Glen Wilson/Lionsgate

“Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan don’t exactly break the mold with Michael, nor do they stuff it with major revelations. But they tap into a vein of melancholy underlaying the stratospheric success that’s surprisingly affecting,” The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic David Rooney writes in his review. “The online mob will be sharpening their pitchforks given the movie’s failure to address the accusations of child sexual abuse that tarnished Michael Jackson’s legacy. But the filmmakers get around that by focusing on his early career, ending with the 1988 Bad World Tour concert in London, years before allegations first surfaced. The epilogue card reading ‘His story continues’ does some heavy lifting.”

When Michael first came on to tracking three weeks ago, the domestic opening range looked to be $55 million to $60 million. While still a great number, subsequent spikes in interest indicated that Lionsgate was successful in tapping into the nostalgia factor, inspiring infrequent moviegoers to return to the multiplex in droves for the first time since the pandemic, or sparking interest among the most avid moviegoing demo, Gen Zers.

Jaafar Jackson, the real-life nephew of the late King of Pop, plays the titular role.

Glen Wilson/Lionsgate

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Adam Fogelson issued a statement early Saturday thanking all those involved, including Fuqua, King, Jaafar Jackson and the Jackson estate. “Above all, it reflects the tremendous outpouring of love and affection from moviegoers around the world, underscoring the strength and vitality of the theatrical box office,” he said. “If you give audiences what they want, they will come.”

Overseas, Michael is opening in 82 markets this weekend, excluding Japan. It is coming in No. 1 in 64 of those, and setting records for a music biopic in 63. It began unfurling in many key markets Wednesday, earning $16.6 million on its first day for an early running total of $18.5 million including previews. It earned another $13.2 million Thursday for an early total of $31.7 million.

International highlights through Thursday — ranked by *estimated openings through Sunday — can be found below, not adjusted for inflation.

U.K. & Ireland (*$13.8 million): Served up the biggest opening day for a musical biopic of all time with $2.6 million, ahead of the Wednesday opening of Bohemian Rhapsody and well above the Friday openings of Elvis and Rocketman. Thursday’s gross came in at $4.l million, or 71 percent of all tickets sold.

France (*$10.3 million): The film also scored $2.6 million on Wednesday to rank as the biggest opening day ever for any biopic, coming in well above the Wednesday openings of Oppenheimer and Bohemian Rhapsody. France delivered another $1.3 million on Thursday for a two-day cume of $3.9 million after capturing 32 percent of all admissions, and performing well across both daytime and night shows. 

Mexico (*$9.3 million): The pic opened to $1 million on Thursday, three more times than Rhapsody, and continues to account for 62 percent of all tickets bought.

Italy (*$8.1 million): Earned a strong $816,000 Thursday for a two-day total of of $2.1 million, and commanding 69 percent of the market. Michael, the biggest music biopic of all time, also reported the highest per-location average of any top title, or north of $16,000.

Germany (*$6.7 million): The pic, whose opening day earnings of $1.3 million beat Bohemian Rhapsody, delivered a strong Thursday for a running total of $2.1 million. (Michael made its world at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year in a nod to the importance of the King of fans overseas.

Other top-performing markets include Brazil, where Michael scored the top opening day ever for a Hollywood biopic, thanks to a strong first day and record previews that trumped both Rhapsody and Oppenheimer.

Kino and Lionsgate will release Michael in Japan in June.

April 25, 9:14 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates for Michael.
April 25, 6:06 p.m.: Updated with revised estimates for Michael.

This story was originally published April 24 at 1:58 a.m.