Michael is rocking the world.
The controversial Michael Jackson biopic, which has drawn criticism for cutting off its story at the 1988 Bad tour and not acknowledging the King of Pop’s later allegations of child sexual abuse, has nevertheless already made a huge splash at the box office. Michael, which stars Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, earned the best domestic debut in history for a music biopic, with its $97.2 million haul trouncing the previous record-holder, which was 2015’s Straight Outta Compton with $60.2 million.
Lionsgate has announced that Michael passed the $300 million milestone worldwide on Friday, after just 10 full days in theaters (while it opened at the domestic box office on Friday, April 24, it debuted in some international markets the Wednesday before). It has surpassed the $288.6 million worldwide gross of 2022’s Elvis to become the second biopic in history to ever pass that milestone, behind 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
Bohemian Rhapsody, which had a smaller debut than 2026’s Michael with a 3-day domestic gross of $51.1 million, eventually climbed to a worldwide gross of $911 million, becoming a major outlier on the music biopic chart. It ultimately remains to be seen if Michael is able to follow in its footsteps. While it is showing strong audience retention (it’s projected to drop just 48% in its sophomore weekend at the domestic box office), it might not be able to keep up with the unusually narrow week-on-week drops of the Queen biopic, which only fell 38.9% during its own sophomore weekend.
However, Michael could ultimately thrive in the long run. One factor that could help it maintain a trajectory similar to Bohemian Rhapsody is the fact that it debuted with a significantly higher 3-day total, giving it further to fall. Additionally, while Michael reviews have been rough, earning it a Rotten Tomatoes score of 38% from critics (compared to Bohemian Rhapsody’s 60%), its audience reviews are through the roof, earning it a Verified Hot Popcornmeter score of 97% (compared to Bohemian Rhapsody’s 85%).
Additionally, Michael’s larger sophomore drop might have come from the fact that The Devil Wears Prada 2 debuted on May 1, providing it with major competition. Bohemian Rhapsody had no such problems with competing adult-oriented fare, as the only non-family movies that opened in wide release during its sophomore weekend were the Lisbeth Salander flop The Girl in the Spider’s Web and action-horror movie Overlord, which had a quiet release overall.
The next major adult-oriented wide release in 2026 is probably Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi epic Disclosure Day, which doesn’t debut until June 12. This should allow Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2 to coexist in theaters, with both continuing to be a draw for their core demographics in the coming weeks. While it remains to be seen if the new movie is able to usurp Bohemian Rhapsody as the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, it should ultimately be able to put up a good fight, no matter the result.
Enjoy ScreenRant’s box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check “Box Office” in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more:
Release Date
April 24, 2026
Runtime
130 minutes
Director
Antoine Fuqua
Writers
John Logan
Producers
Graham King, John Branca, John McClain