{"id":600081,"date":"2026-04-22T18:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600081\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:41:07","slug":"michael-box-office-eyes-record-opening-for-music-biopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600081\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Box Office Eyes Record Opening for Music Biopic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cMichael<\/a>\u201d will moonwalk to the top of box office charts.<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate\u2019s film about the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is aiming for $65 million to $70 million from 3,900 North American theaters in its opening weekend. Some exhibitors are predicting the final number will be closer to $80 million as advance ticket sales, particularly in premium large formats like Imax, continue to rise. Even the lower end of projections would rank as the largest debut ever for a musical biopic, ahead of 2018\u2019s \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d ($51 million) and 2015\u2019s \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d ($60 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the international box office, where Universal is handling the rollout, \u201cMichael\u201d is expected to be even bigger. It\u2019s projected to earn $75 million to $80 million from 82 markets. Globally, the film should end up with a stellar $140 million to $150 million (or more) by Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn other words, \u201cMichael\u201d is primed to be a massive crowd-pleaser despite the poor reviews and costly behind-the-scenes turmoil<\/a>. That\u2019s promising because \u201cMichael\u201d is also one of the most expensive music biopics of all time. The film originally cost $155 million, in part because of expensive music rights and extensive recreations of famous concert performances. Then the singer\u2019s estate had to pay tens of millions for additional photography after learning the third act of the film was unusable. The story had dealt with a 1993 lawsuit that accused Michael Jackson of child sexual abuse, which he denied. After the movie was shot, producers discovered a clause in the settlement with the young accuser that barred the depiction or mention of him in film or television. <\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Antoine Fuqua (\u201cTraining Day\u201d) retooled the movie so the dramatic tension is about the singer\u2019s relationship with his domineering father, Joe Jackson, who doesn\u2019t want his son\u2019s solo career to come at the expense of the Jackson 5, the Motown group that put the family on the map. Michael Jackson is portrayed by his real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson, while his parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson, are played by Colman Domingo and Nia Long. These changes caused the studio to delay the movie\u2019s release by a year.<\/p>\n

\n\tHollywood is looking at \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d as a point of box office comparison. The Queen origin story, which also heavily leaned on thrilling concert sequences to electrify audiences, stands as the biggest music biopic of all time with $910 million worldwide. Internally, Lionsgate hopes \u201cMichael\u201d will gross at least $700 million worldwide. Should the film reach those box office heights, Lionsgate is planning to make at least one more film about Jackson\u2019s life. The studios suggest roughly 30% of the material that was jettisoned from \u201cMichael\u201d could be reconstituted for potential sequels.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs this weekend\u2019s only major release, \u201cMichael\u201d will easily tower over North American charts. Reigning champ \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d is poised for second place after three weekends in the No. 1 spot. Universal\u2019s animated sequel about the beloved Nintendo characters has become another box office smash with $356 million domestically and $752 million globally to date. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a better-than-expected April, the box office is ahead 16% from the same point in 2025, according to Comscore. Momentum should continue in May as Disney\u2019s fashion-forward follow-up \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d kicks off the month, followed by the Warner Bros. action sequel \u201cMortal Kombat 2\u201d and the \u201cStar Wars\u201d spinoff \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMichael\u201d will moonwalk to the top of box office charts. Lionsgate\u2019s film about the King of Pop, Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,27354],"class_list":{"0":"post-600081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-michael"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}