Topline<\/p>\n
The Michael Jackson biopic \u201cMichael\u201d grossed $97 million at the domestic box office over its opening weekend, according to early estimates reported by the Hollywood trade<\/a> publications<\/a>, breaking the record for biggest opening weekend for a biopic and instantly making it one of the year\u2019s biggest openings so far.<\/p>\n The Michael Jackson biopic had one of the biggest openings at North American theaters in 2026 so far.<\/p>\n WireImageKey Facts<\/p>\n \u201cMichael\u201d grossed $97 million at North American theaters, as well as another $120.4 million for a global total of about $217 million\u2014placing it among the biggest debuts of the year so far.<\/p>\n It also shattered the record for biggest opening weekend for a music biopic, which was previously held by the N.W.A. biopic \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d after it grossed $60.2 million over its opening weekend in 2015, as well as the record for biggest general biopic opening, held by \u201cOppenheimer\u201d after Christopher Nolan\u2019s film about the life of the nuclear physicist opened for $82.4 million in 2023.<\/p>\n The massive haul far surpassed expectations\u2014BoxOffice Pro forecast<\/a> the film to gross somewhere between $65 million and $75 million in its opening weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cMichael\u201d is now the second-biggest debut of 2026, surpassing the $80.5 million debut for \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d but falling short of \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie,\u201d which grossed $131.7 million when opening earlier this month.<\/p>\n Contra<\/p>\n \u201cMichael,\u201d directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring the king of pop\u2019s nephew Jaafar Jackson, was panned by critics, earning only a 38% rating from reviewers according to aggregator Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> and a \u201cgenerally unfavorable\u201d rating from Metacritic<\/a>. However, the film is clearly connecting with audiences, as the massive box office haul implies. It has a 97% approval rating with viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, and earned an A- Cinemascore<\/a> from viewers surveyed after screenings.<\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n \u201cMichael\u201d was shot with a reported budget of $150 million. However, Forbes<\/a> previously estimated the biopic needs to make back about $500 million to break even. Last year, the film scrapped a planned ending that would have acknowledged the pop singer\u2019s allegations of child sexual abuse that broke in the 1990s. Producers were worried the ending could have run afoul of a 1994 settlement with one of Jackson\u2019s accusers, which included a clause that their story could not be dramatized. Producers had to book 22 days of reshoots<\/a> last July, which Forbes estimates cost the production up to $25 million\u2014although other reports<\/a> indicate this figure was as high as $50 million for just under three weeks of filming.<\/p>\n Big Number<\/p>\n Over $3 billion. That\u2019s how much Forbes estimates Michael Jackson\u2019s estate has made since his death in 2009.<\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesMichael Jackson\u2019s Estate Spent Millions To Sanitize His New Biopic. Crowds Don\u2019t Seem To Care.By Matt Craig<\/a>ForbesUpcoming Michael Jackson Biopic \u2018Filled With Inaccuracies\u2019 Daughter Paris SaysBy Conor Murray<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline The Michael Jackson biopic \u201cMichael\u201d grossed $97 million at the domestic box office over its opening weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12894,12434,8,11473,11470,9,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-21263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-biopics","9":"tag-box-office","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-michael","12":"tag-michael-jackson","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116474287391962239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}