{"id":628782,"date":"2026-04-26T00:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628782\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T00:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:21:09","slug":"michael-now-opening-to-nearly-100m-domestically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628782\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Michael’ Now Opening to Nearly $100M Domestically"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a history-making moonwalk, Antoine Fuqua\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic<\/a> is launching light-years ahead of expectations at the domestic box office<\/a>, with a projected $94 million-$100 million domestic opening and a global launch north of $200 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael<\/a> had a super-sized victory for Lionsgate<\/a>, 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\u2019s hard for rival studios \u2014 who are rooting for Lionsgate \u2014 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<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas \u2014 where Jackson is an even bigger draw \u2014 Michael is likewise off to a record-breaking start for an opening in the $114 million range. One exception is Japan, where Jackson\u2019s fanbase is enormous. (The 2011 Michael Jackson<\/a> posthumous concert doc This Is It earned $196 million at the foreign office; Japan\u2019s contribution was $57 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tHeading into the weekend, Michael was tracking to open in the $65 million-$70 million range domestically<\/a>, 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\u2019s Straight Outta Compton<\/a> ($60.1 million), followed by Fox\u2019s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody ($55 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s also one of the biggest biopic openings of all time for any biopic. Other noteworthy victories: it\u2019s 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\u2019s final Twilight movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn inkling of Michael\u2018s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe big unknown was how front-loaded Michael would be. By Saturday, it was clear it wasn\u2019t 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 \u2014 the best ever for the genre \u2014 PostTrak exit scores in the low 90s, and a definite recommend of 85 percent (those levels are rarely seen). It didn\u2019t earn a perfect grade on CinemaScore, but it did earn a good enough A-.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tColman Domingo as Joe Jackson in Michael.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Lionsgate<\/p>\n

\n\tNearly 40 percent of the film\u2019s gross is coming from Imax and other premium large-format screens.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday, headlines focused on Michael\u2018s worrisome RT critics\u2019 score, which bounced between 29 percent and 33 percent. By Thursday night, the critics\u2019 score had risen to 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While that\u2019s far from ideal, strong audience exits<\/a> 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\u2019s audience, followed by white moviegoers at 26 percent, according to one snapshot provided by PostTrak.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael\u2019s road to the big screen was long, and hit a major delay<\/a> 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<\/a>. While rumors began swirling in the very latter part of the 1980s, the first public accusation didn\u2019t emerge until 1993. The film\u2019s 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\u2019s rampant talk of a sequel, some question whether it will really happen<\/a>, since it would be impossible to avoid the darker years that followed.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Jackson 5<\/a> in Antoine Fuqua\u2019s Michael.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGlen Wilson\/Lionsgate<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFuqua\u00a0and screenwriter\u00a0John Logan\u00a0don\u2019t exactly break the mold with\u00a0Michael, nor do they stuff it with major revelations. But they tap into a vein of melancholy underlaying the stratospheric success that\u2019s surprisingly affecting,\u201d The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic David Rooney writes in his review<\/a>. \u201cThe online mob will be sharpening their pitchforks given the movie\u2019s failure to address the accusations of child sexual abuse that tarnished\u00a0Michael Jackson\u2019s legacy. But the filmmakers get around that by focusing on his early career, ending with the 1988\u00a0Bad\u00a0World Tour concert in London, years before allegations first surfaced. The epilogue card reading \u2018His story continues\u2019 does some heavy lifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen 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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJaafar Jackson, the real-life nephew of the late King of Pop, plays the titular role.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGlen Wilson\/Lionsgate<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Adam Fogelson issued a statement early Saturday thanking all those involved, including Fuqua, King, Jaafar Jackson and the Jackson estate. \u201cAbove 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,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you give audiences what they want, they will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas, 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational highlights through Thursday \u2014 ranked by *estimated openings through Sunday \u2014 can be found below, not adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n

\n\tU.K. & Ireland\u00a0(*$13.8 million):\u00a0Served up the biggest opening day for a musical biopic of all time with $2.6 million, ahead of the Wednesday opening of\u00a0Bohemian Rhapsody<\/a>\u00a0and well above the Friday openings of Elvis\u00a0and\u00a0Rocketman.\u00a0Thursday\u2019s gross came in at $4.l million, or 71 percent of all tickets sold.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrance (*$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\u00a0and\u00a0Bohemian 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMexico\u00a0(*$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.<\/p>\n

\n\tItaly\u00a0(*$8.1 million): Earned a strong $816,000\u00a0Thursday for a two-day total of of\u00a0$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.<\/p>\n

\n\tGermany (*$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.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tKino and Lionsgate will release Michael in Japan in June.<\/p>\n

\n\tApril 25, 9:14 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates for Michael.
April 25, 6:06 p.m.: Updated with revised estimates for Michael.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was originally published April 24 at 1:58 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a history-making moonwalk, Antoine Fuqua\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic is launching light-years ahead of expectations at the domestic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[37615,6471,49,48,75,78476,15895,17234,17235,341,235556,235557],"class_list":{"0":"post-628782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bohemian-rhapsody","9":"tag-box-office","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-janet-jackson","14":"tag-lionsgate","15":"tag-michael","16":"tag-michael-jackson","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-straight-outta-compton","19":"tag-the-jackson-5"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}