‘Michael’ Moonwalks Tall With Biopic Record $217 Global Box Office Opening

Lionsgate/Universal’s “Michael” is setting the box office up for a big summer, breaking the all-time opening weekend record for biopics set three years ago by Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” with a launch of $97 million domestic and $217 million worldwide, passing the $82.4 million domestic/$174 million global total of the 2023 Best Picture Oscar winner.

“Michael” has been circled by theater owners as one of the big tentpoles to look out for ever since it was first announced that Michael Jackson would be played by his nephew, Jaafar. But the question was whether it would be simply a huge hit or one that could smash records left and right.

After this weekend, “Michael” is well on its way to becoming the latter. It is a lock to become the first Lionsgate release outside of the “Hunger Games” or “Twilight” franchises to gross more than $200 million domestic and will become the studio’s highest grossing film since the main “Hunger Games” series ended in 2015. A domestic multiple of more than 3x will put “Michael” past the $283 million of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” to become one of Lionsgate’s top 5 highest grossing films of all time before inflation adjustment.

And globally, “Michael” will now take aim at the unadjusted all time biopic record held by “Oppenheimer” with $975 million, followed by the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” with $906 million from its 2018 release.

Whether it gets there will depend on how word-of-mouth travels beyond MJ’s rabid global fanbase, who will surely be back in theaters for repeat viewings. Those fans have been effusive in their praise for the film, giving it an A- on CinemaScore and a 97% Rotten Tomatoes audience score.

But competition is coming in the weeks ahead for general audience attention, starting with 20th Century’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” which will have some overlap with “Michael” as the biopic drew in an opening weekend audience that was 61% female, according to PostTrak data.

But the overlap isn’t complete, as “Prada” will likely skew more towards white moviegoers than “Michael,” which had an audience share of 38% Black, 26% Latino, 24% Caucasian and 6% Asian.

After that comes films like Warner Bros./New Line’s male-skewing “Mortal Kombat II” and Amazon MGM’s family film “The Sheep Detectives”; so with no global four-quadrant competition coming until the “Star Wars” film “The Mandalorian & Grogu” on Memorial Day weekend, “Michael” has a lane to leg out as well as the biggest biopic hits ever made.

Elsewhere on the charts, Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” added $21.2 million in its fourth weekend domestically and opened to $9.8 million in Japan, bringing its totals to $386.4 million domestic and $831.4 million worldwide as it continues its push to $1 billion.

Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary,” meanwhile, has become the first film since “Deadpool & Wolverine” in September 2024 to stay on more than 3,500 screens in North America in its sixth weekend in theaters. Enjoying spectacular word-of-mouth that has helped it leg out past $300 million domestic, the film grossed $12.2 million this weekend to reach $305 million domestic and $613 million worldwide.

More to come…

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