Michael Jackson biopic scores record $97 million domestic debut

Michael has redrawn the ceiling for music biopics. The Michael Jackson spectacle opened with $97 million in the United States and Canada and $120.4 million overseas for a $217.4 million global start, a debut that instantly set a new domestic record for the genre.

The scale of the opening matters because the film arrived with plenty of baggage. It was heavily cut and reshot after producers concluded that the original third act would have collided with a 1994 settlement tied to allegations involving Jordan Chandler. Reporting ahead of release put the cost of those reshoots at roughly $10 million to $15 million, and some estimates placed the total budget near $200 million, making it one of the most expensive music biopics ever made.

Even so, audiences turned out in force for a highly authorized version of one of pop’s most enduring and polarizing figures. The film was co-produced by the Jackson estate and stars Jaafar Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew, as the King of Pop. Paris Jackson publicly criticized the project as inaccurate and said she would not support it, while other family members took a more favorable or involved stance. That split only sharpened the sense that Michael was not just a movie, but a referendum on who gets to control Jackson’s legacy.

The box office also showed how far the film outperformed expectations. Before release, domestic projections ranged from about $51 million to $100 million, and the final total landed at the top of that spread. It also blew past previous benchmark music biopic openings, including Straight Outta Compton’s $60.2 million domestic launch in 2015 and Bohemian Rhapsody’s $51 million in 2018.

Universal handled international distribution in most territories, while Lionsgate distributed the film domestically. Principal photography reportedly wrapped in May 2024, and the release date was pushed from October 2025 to April 24, 2026 to allow for more postproduction time.

The commercial result suggests that nostalgia, star branding and event-movie marketing can still overwhelm skepticism when the subject is large enough. Weak reviews did not stop a strong audience response, and early turnout points to a Hollywood lesson that will shape future sequel and biopic bets: legacy names with global recognition can still open like tentpoles, even when the story around the film is as contentious as the story inside it. Michael Jackson died in 2009 at age 50, but his catalog and mythology remain box-office assets with unusual force.