{"id":430939,"date":"2026-05-16T18:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430939\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T18:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:53:11","slug":"michael-jackson-biopic-moonwalks-back-to-no-1-at-the-box-office-surging-past-two-newer-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430939\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Biopic Moonwalks Back To No. 1 At The Box Office, Surging Past Two Newer Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael<\/a> is bringing the house down during its fourth weekend in theaters.<\/p>\n

In addition to earning a less-than-stellar 39% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the controversial Michael Jackson biopic<\/a> has drawn criticism for its sunny depiction of the King of Pop that doesn’t touch on the star’s allegations of child sexual abuse. However, in spite of those factors, it has become an enormous success, quickly becoming the second music biopic in history to surpass the $600 million milestone worldwide (behind 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody) in the middle of a run that could potentially make it the first billion-dollar music biopic in history.<\/p>\n

Lionsgate has announced that, as of Saturday morning, Michael is projected to earn a 3-day total of between $25 and $28 million by the end of its fourth weekend in domestic theaters. This total should allow it to return to No. 1 on the domestic box office chart for the weekend after it was pushed to No. 2 during its sophomore weekend behind The Devil Wears Prada 2 and to No. 3 the following weekend by the combined efforts of Devil Wears Prada and Mortal Kombat II.<\/p>\n

2026’s Michael<\/a> has managed to rise back above both of the newer major releases thanks to another stellar week-on-week hold that sees it boasting a remarkably narrow drop between 26% and 34%. However, neither of the titles that it has usurped is performing poorly. The Devil Wears Prada 2 has simply been knocked to No. 2 with a projected $20 million (per Variety), representing a 52% drop in its third weekend.<\/p>\n

This weekend, the Meryl Streep sequel is set to become only the fourth movie of the year to pass the $175 million domestic milestone. However, it has been thwarted in its attempt to match The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s record of consecutive No. 1 weekends, so the animated smash hit remains the longest-running No. 1 domestic title of the year so far with three weekends at the top of the chart.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat II is dropping roughly 66% from its opening weekend (which was the best domestic debut of the four-film Mortal Kombat franchise<\/a>) to hit No. 4 with a projected $12.7 million. While the movie is more sluggish than expected, it will earn back its reported $80 million budget worldwide by the end of the weekend, putting it in a reasonably solid position to potentially end up in the black by the end of its run.<\/p>\n

It has been knocked an extra space down the chart by the buzzy new horror movie Obsession. The Curry Barker-directed feature is set to debut at No. 3 with a $14.5 million gross. While it was unable to unseat either The Devil Wears Prada or Michael, its reported budget is just $1 million, so it has already shot past its estimated break-even point of $2.5 million and then some.<\/p>\n

By facing down all of this competition, Michael has officially become the first movie to return to No. 1 at the domestic box office in six months, since Zootopia 2 reclaimed the crown during its third weekend, after being knocked down to No. 2 by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 during its sophomore outing. Additionally, the last time a movie returned to No. 1 during its fourth weekend was when the 2025 smash hit Weapons was briefly interrupted in its run at the top of the chart by the sing-along release of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters during its third weekend.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

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\"michael-poster.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApril 24, 2026<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t130 minutes<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntoine Fuqua<\/p>\n

Writers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Logan<\/p>\n

Producers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGraham King, John Branca, John McClain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael is bringing the house down during its fourth weekend in theaters. In addition to earning a less-than-stellar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-430939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}