Michael Jackson Biopic’s Record-Breaking Debut Unseats 2026’s Biggest Box Office Hit On U.S. Chart

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Michael is startin’ somethin’ at the box office.

The new Michael Jackson biopic, covering his life from his days with the Jackson 5 through the peak of his success with the ‘Bad’ tour, opened in theaters on April 24th. The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, notably avoids addressing the accusations of child sexual abuse made against the singer. Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s nephew, stars as the King of Pop, alongside Colman Domingo as his father, Joseph Jackson, Nia Long as his mother, Katherine Jackson, Miles Teller as his manager John Branca, Kendrick Sampson as producer Quincy Jones, and Mike Myers as Walter Yetnikoff, the president of CBS Records.

Lionsgate reports that the film Michael is expected to earn between $90 and $100 million during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada. This strong debut makes it the highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a music biopic, exceeding the $60.2 million earned by Straight Outta Compton. Michael is also projected to be the top movie at the box office this weekend.

This is the first film to knock The Super Mario Galaxy Movie from the top spot. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was the biggest film of 2026 globally and held the number one position at the domestic box office for three weeks straight. While Michael is a new release, it’s unlikely to match The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s success, let alone surpass it, as the highly anticipated sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2 is scheduled to come out during Michael’s second week in theaters.

We don’t yet know how much money the movie Michael, scheduled for release in 2026, needs to earn to become profitable in theaters. Although its production cost—reportedly over $165 million—is higher than many Marvel films like Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man, Thor, and the first Captain America, the studio behind it, Lionsgate, often uses a strategy that makes predicting success harder. Lionsgate typically sells rights to distribute their films internationally before they’re released, which helps cover the production costs and lowers the amount of money the movie needs to earn to be considered a success.

Michael appears to be on track to become a huge success in theaters. If it performs like the 2018 hit Bohemian Rhapsody – which opened with $51.1 million and eventually grossed over $910.8 million worldwide, becoming the first music biopic to earn over $300 million – it could even become the first biopic to reach $1 billion in box office revenue.

Despite negative reviews from critics – the film currently has a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes, lower than the 60% for Bohemian Rhapsody – audiences are loving it. It’s received a 97% Verified Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to Bohemian Rhapsody‘s 85%) and a CinemaScore of A-, slightly better than the A received by Bohemian Rhapsody. This suggests the movie could gain a lot of popularity through positive word-of-mouth in the weeks ahead.

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2026-04-25 19:08