The Michael Jackson biopic has delivered one of the most remarkable opening weekends in cinema history, grossing $97 million in the United States and Canada and $217 million worldwide to claim the biggest opening weekend ever recorded for a music biopic and the biggest domestic biopic debut of all time.
The film, titled simply Michael and released by Lionsgate, surpassed the previous music biopic opening weekend record held by Straight Outta Compton, which debuted to $60 million in 2015, and also eclipsed Oppenheimer’s $80 million domestic opening, the prior record for any biographical film. The global figure places it second only to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie among all 2026 releases.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film stars Jaafar Jackson, Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew, in his acting debut as the King of Pop. Colman Domingo and Nia Long portray Joe and Katherine Jackson respectively. The story traces Jackson’s rise from his early years in the Jackson 5 through to his global stardom, with the relationship between Michael and his controlling father serving as the narrative backbone. The film ends during the Bad world tour in 1988.
The production had a turbulent path to release. The original screenplay included a dramatisation of a 1993 legal case involving Jackson, but those sequences were scrapped after producers discovered a clause in an old settlement agreement that legally barred their depiction. A major overhaul and 22 days of reshoots followed, pushing the final budget to approximately $200 million, making it one of the most expensive biopics ever made. Costs were shared between Lionsgate, Universal, which holds international distribution rights, and the Michael Jackson estate.
The critical response has been sharply divided. Only 38 percent of critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a positive review, with many arguing it takes a sanitised approach to Jackson’s life by omitting later controversies. Audiences, however, have responded in the opposite direction, awarding the film a 96 percent audience score, the highest ever recorded for a music biopic on the platform, alongside strong exit polling scores. The film earned a CinemaScore of A minus.
Nearly 40 percent of the domestic gross came from IMAX and other premium large-format screens, underscoring the spectacle value audiences brought to the experience. Lionsgate has confirmed it is in discussions to produce a sequel that would continue Jackson’s story beyond 1988.
