{"id":606067,"date":"2026-04-25T18:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/606067\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T18:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:31:10","slug":"michael-starts-strong-with-39-5-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/606067\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Michael’ Starts Strong With $39.5 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cMichael<\/a>\u201d told the rest of the domestic box office to \u201cBeat It,\u201d as Lionsgate<\/a>\u2019s biopic about the King of Pop easily secured the top spot on the Friday charts.<\/p>\n

\n\tAntoine Fuqua\u2019s \u201cMichael\u201d earned $39.5 million on opening day from 3,955 North American theaters. Early projections have the film grossing a staggering $90 million to $100 million by Sunday. That easily marks the best debut for a music biopic, legging out 2018\u2019s \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d ($51 million) and 2015\u2019s \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d ($60 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate needs \u201cMichael\u201d to deliver a massive payday because it carries a hefty $155 million production budget, a price tag weighed down by expensive music rights and extravagant concert sets. The Jackson estate also had to shell out additional tens of millions after the third act was deemed unusable<\/a>. \u201cMichael\u2019s\u201d third act dealt with a 1993 lawsuit that accused Michael Jackson of child sexual abuse, an allegation he vehemently denied. After the film was shot, producers uncovered a clause in the settlement with the accuser that barred the depiction or mention of them in film or TV projects.<\/p>\n

\n\tFuqua was forced to retool the movie to center on the relationship between Michael Jackson and his controlling father, Joe Jackson, played by Colman Domingo. Michael Jackson\u2019s real-life nephew, Jafaar Jackson, plays the King of Pop. Other cast members include Nia Long as Katherine Jackson, Tre\u2019 Horton as Marlon Jackson, Rhyan Hill and Tito Jackson, Joseph David-Jones as Jackie Jackson and Jamal Henderson as Jermain Jackson.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMichael\u201d is the weekend\u2019s only major newcomer. In second and third place were \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d and \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d respectively. Universal\u2019s videogame sequel added $4.5 million on Friday and should pull in $20.5 million by Sunday. By the end of the weekend, North American earnings for \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d should hit $385 million. \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d grossed $3.5 million on Friday. It\u2019s projected to make $12.1 by Sunday, pushing its domestic total to $304 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tRounding out the Friday top five were \u201cLee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy\u201d and \u201cThe Drama.\u201d \u201cThe Mummy\u201d took fourth, with just $1.9 million in its second Friday in theaters. By Sunday, it is expected to earn approximately $5 million, bringing its North American total to $22 million. \u201cThe Drama\u201d landed in fifth, grossing an estimated $810,000. Rival projections have it making $2.6 milion by Sunday, boosting its North American tally to about $44 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMichael\u201d told the rest of the domestic box office to \u201cBeat It,\u201d as Lionsgate\u2019s biopic about the King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,14968,27354],"class_list":{"0":"post-606067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-lionsgate","10":"tag-michael"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606067","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=606067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}