Michael Jackson Biopic Hits Huge Box Office Milestone, Gets Close To Joining All-Time Top 100

2 weeks ago 12

Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson eating popcorn on the couch with Nia Long as Katherine Jackson in Michael 2026

Published May 31, 2026, 11:41 AM EDT

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

Michael's box office rise is continuing to be a thriller.

Per The Numbers, as of Sunday morning, Michael is projected to close out its sixth weekend in theaters by hitting a cumulative global gross of $808.6 million, comprising $339.9 million from domestic theaters and an additional $368.7 million from international markets. This sees it passing the $800 million milestone over the weekend, becoming only the second music biopic to ever do so, behind Bohemian Rhapsody ($911 million worldwide).

This worldwide gross sees 2026's Michael surging past major hits such as The Da Vinci Code ($801.3 million), Jumanji: The Next Level ($801.7 million), and Shrek the Third ($808.3 million) to land at No. 113 on the all-time chart of the highest-grossing movies worldwide (not adjusted for inflation).

In order to land on the all-time Top 100, all Michael needs to do is earn an additional $47.5 million to outgross the $856.1 million gross of 2018's Venom, which currently occupies that spot. While it could take some time for it to accomplish that goal, it should be able to do it before the end of its run. Michael has shown astounding audience retention, with this weekend's 43% week-on-week domestic drop marking only the second time that it has had a drop of more than 31%.

Although critics largely rejected the movie, with their Michael reviews giving it a dismal 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences have had a much stronger response, giving it a Verified Hot score of 97% on the same platform, as well as a CinemaScore of A-. This word of mouth has allowed it to reach this massive box office milestone in the first place, and will likely see it continuing to shine even as its run begins to slow down.

While it remains to be seen if it can usurp Bohemian Rhapsody as the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, Michael showed early potential to become the first billion-dollar entry in the genre, and it still seems to be on track to inch its way across that major milestone in the coming weeks. Should it do so, it will become the 61st movie in history to ever earn more than $1 billion worldwide.

Even if it doesn't quite meet that mark, Michael is an undeniable hit. Movies often need to earn back two and a half times their budgets in order to break even in theaters. Considering the movie's reported budget of $200 million, this means that if it was a normal blockbuster, it would have ended up in the black back when it passed $500 million. However, it's a Lionsgate production. The studio typically covers the majority of their budgets with international pre-sales, so it likely started turning a profit long before it hit the half-billion milestone.

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