'Michael' Becomes the Highest-Grossing Biopic of All Time
The Michael Jackson biopic has overtaken Oppenheimer at the global box office, pulling in roughly 977 million dollars just two months into its theatrical run.
Image courtesy - Lionsgate
Michael is no longer just the most successful music biopic ever made. The film has now climbed past every biographical drama in history, reaching that milestone barely two months after arriving in cinemas. According to a Lionsgate representative, the movie has earned around 977 million dollars worldwide, edging past the previous benchmark set by Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which finished its run at roughly 965 million three years ago.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson as his late uncle, the film made an immediate impact. Its global opening weekend in April delivered about 217 million dollars, a record start, and it has continued to add more than a million dollars a day since. Its domestic haul currently sits near 370 million, enough to rank as Lionsgate's third biggest earner on home soil, behind only The Hunger Games and its sequel Catching Fire.
A Hit Despite the Headlines
The story traces Jackson's rise from his childhood years performing with his brothers in the Jackson 5 through to his 1988 Bad tour. Commercial success has come even as the film drew unfavourable reviews and pointed criticism for choosing not to address the child sexual abuse allegations that followed the singer for much of his later life.
The production itself was far from smooth. Backed by the Jackson estate, the filmmakers were reportedly barred on legal grounds from depicting the accusations made by Jordan Chandler. That restriction forced a complete reshoot of the third act and pushed the release back by close to a year.
A New Surge of Interest in the Music
Beyond ticket sales, the film has sent fresh attention toward Jackson's catalogue. Streams of his solo material spiked sharply, lifting Thriller back to number seven on the Billboard 200. During the film's opening week in late April, his solo songs drew a career-best 137.5 million on-demand streams in the United States, a jump of 146 percent over his previous peak.
The music he recorded with the Jackson 5, and later the Jacksons, rode the same wave, generating around 10.1 million streams across that week, up 135 percent on the previous seven days.
With momentum still building, Michael is widely expected to cross the one billion dollar mark globally before long. Fittingly, the film closes on the words "The Story Continues," a clear hint that a sequel may already be on the way.