In its tenth weekend at the global box office, Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson movie Michael continues to make history, becoming the highest grossing biopic ever with $977.4 million, ahead of Universal’s Oppenheimer. Uni also handled the foreign release of Michael sans Japan and Russia where the Antoine Fuqua directed movie is still in theatrical release.
The amaze-amaze here is that Oppenheimer got to $975.8M off an Oscar season run, which notched 7 wins including Best Picture and Best Director for Christopher Nolan, but also a final territory boost from Japan which went very late on March 29, 2024, eight months after the pic’s July release.
Michael made $9.2M at the global box office this past weekend ($905K domestic via Lionsgate, foreign juiced by Kino in Japan where Lionsgate has a co-partnership deal). Running cume domestic is $370.2M and foreign stands at $607.2M from all territories (Universal tabulating $559.7M of that figure from their own markets). The anticipation is that the movie, which stars Jackson’s nephew, Jafar Jackson in the title role, will get to a billion worldwide. If it does, it will be the second film to do so in 2026 after Universal/Illumination’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Already, Michael is the highest grossing musical biopic ever, having surpassed producer Graham King’s own (he also produced Michael), Bohemian Rhapsody ($911M WW).
Interesting to note at least stateside that Michael pulled off its latest record while being on a 46-day theatrical window to PVOD. Oppenheimer was on a 123-day theatrical window to PVOD/DVD, and well over six month theatrical window before it landed on streaming service Peacock in the U.S.