The Michael Jackson film scored the top launch ever for a biopic domestically after passing up ‘Oppenheimer,’ as well as the best global opening for a music biopic, after overcoming the biggest divide between audiences and critics in recent memory.
By Pamela McClintock
April 26, 2026 9:30am
In another win for a non-franchise title, Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic pulled off a moon walk for the ages at the worldwide box office with a record-smashing $97 million domestic opening and $120.4 million foreign launch for a global blast-off of $217.4 million, according to Sunday estimates.
Michael, coming in nearly $30 million ahead of expectations, boasts the biggest domestic opening of all time for any biopic after passing up Oppenheimer ($80 million), not adjusted for inflation. And the Lionsgate movie eclipsed Boheiman Rhapsody to rank as the top worldwide opening for a music biopic. Universal, a powerhouse on the international front, is releasing the film overseas on behalf of Lionsgate.
Heading into the weekend, producer Graham King and Lionsgate never imagined Michael had a shot at becoming the King of All Biopics in terms of its North America opening, since even the most bullish tracking showed it coming in at around $70 million. Instead, they were instead focused on breaking the record-setting bow of Straight Outta Compton and ruling the music biopic category. But by Friday night, it became clear the movie was going to approach $100 million domestically after becoming the latest title to benefit from keeping its storyline family-friendly and appealing to those who simply wanted to celebrate Jackson’s music.
Other milestones: It marks Lionsgate’s best debut since the pandemic, and its sixth-biggest ever behind four Hunger Games installments and the final Twillight film. And it danced past the opening of 2026 sleeper hit Project Hail Mary to mark the second-biggest opening of the year, both in North America and globally, behind Universal and Illumination’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Overseas, where Jackson is an even bigger draw, Michael is likewise off to a record-breaking start with $120.4 million from 84 markets. In 63 of those — including the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Netherlands and South Asia — it sent a new benchmark for the music biopic genre. Michael opened in virtually every corner of the globe; one exception is Japan, where Jackson’s fanbase is enormous. The 2011 Michael Jackson posthumous concert doc This Is It earned $196 million at the foreign office; Japan’s contribution was $57 million. Kino and Lionsgate have set a June release date.
Endorsed by the Jackson estate, Michael faced its fair share of challenges in reaching the big screen. It hit major delays when the decision was made by producer Graham King and Lionsgate to spend tens of millions reworking the third act to avoid mention of the allegations of child sexual abuse that engulfed the King of Pop in scandal before his death in 2009. All told, the final budget of $200 million appears worth it. Universal is handling the film overseas on behalf of Lionsgate, save for Japan.
Phenomenal world-of-mouth is more than making up forgenerally lousy reviews (its Rotten Tomatoes critics score is 40 percent).
Exit polls quickly revealed Michael isn’t just appointment viewing for hard-core fans and that strong word-of-mouth is more than making for one of the biggest divides in recent memory between critics and audiences: The film is graced with 97 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — the best ever for the genre; PostTrak exit scores are in the low 90s and a definite recommend of 85 percent, levels rarely seen. And while it didn’t earn a perfect grade on CinemaScore, it did earn a good-enough A-.
Michael‘s success is a result of playing across all ethnicities and age groups. While it did over-index among Black moviegoers (38 percent), Latinos accounted for a sizable 26 percent of the audience, followed by white moviegoers at 26 percent, according to PostTrak.
And the following age stats are a distributor’s are a dream come true, but rarely do. Moviegoers over the age of 55 rarely turn out for opening weekend; teenagers can be just as elusive. In this case, those 55 and older made up anywhere from 15 to percent of ticket buyers, while teens made up 6 percent to 7 percent (believe me, those are excellent numbers). Gen Zers and younger Millennials also turned out in force, with those between the ages of 18 and 34 making up 45 percent to 50 percent of the opening-weekend audience. But those over the age of 35 almost matched those numbers, or 44 percent to 48 percent, including those over the age of 55 who were previously mentioned.
Elsewhere, Super Mario Galaxy is hardly complaining about coming in second ruling the roost for weeks, since it’s now focused on becoming the first film of the year to join the billion-dollar club after finishing Sunday with a global total of $871 million.
Nor is Hail Mary feeling sorry for itself as it racked up more milestones in its sixth outing when crossing the $300 million mark domestically and $600 million globally to finish Sunday with a worldwide total of $613.3 million. In North America, it placed third with $13 million after falling 36 percent, the lowest decline of any pic in the top 10.
From New Line, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy fell 58 percent to $5.6 million for a fourth-place finish in its second weekend for a 10-day domestic total of $23.5 million. The pic, produced by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, is scaring up more business overseas, where it grossed another $12.4 million for a foreign tally of $42 million. Its global tally is $65.5 million against a reportedly modest budget of $22 million.
At the specialty box office, A24’s edgy and daring The Drama is an official sleeper hit after opening to so-so numbers amid solid, but not spectacular, reviews and audience scores. But word-of-mouth began spreading among Gen Zers, and the movie, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, became a “thing.” And with many distracted attention to Michael’s opening, The Drama quietly cleared the $100 million globally, including a foreign war chest of $67 million and $44.8 million domestically (it rounded out the top in North America with $2.6 million.)
A24, unfortunately, couldn’t trumpet The Drama, considering its latest movie, Mother Mary, all-out bombed in its nationwide expansion. The David Lowery-directed film, whose cast is led by Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, FKA Twigs, Hunger Schafer and more, opened in ninth place with $1.1 million from 1,103 theaters.
Mother Mary‘s timing isn’t great, at least for Hathaway, since it arrives in theaters just one week before The Devil Wears Prada 2 kicks off the summer box office. However, no one is coming down too hard on Hathaway for the failure of Lowery’s horror-thriller pic about an aging pop star to resonate with audiences. Prada 2 is tracking to be a hit of record-breaking proportions and reunites Hathaway with Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.
