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Box Office Stunner: ‘Michael’ Now Opening to Nearly $100M Domestically

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In a history-making moonwalk, Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic is launching light-years ahead of expectations at the domestic box office, with a projected $94 million-$100 million domestic opening and a global launch north of $200 million.

Michael had a super-sized victory for Lionsgate, and its biggest opening in years. The mini-major studio is understandably attempting to manage expectations by giving a wider domestic opening range of $90 million to $100 million. But it’s hard for rival studios — who are rooting for Lionsgate — to contain their excitement. The movie grossed a super-sized $38.5 million on Friday alone, its official opening day, as audience exit scores quickly went platinum and the film attracted virtually every demo, led by Black and female moviegoers. (So much for all the chatter about generally bad reviews.)

Overseas — where Jackson is an even bigger draw — Michael is likewise off to a record-breaking start for an opening in the $114 million range. One exception is Japan, where Jackson’s fanbase is enormous. (The 2011 Michael Jackson posthumous concert doc This Is It earned $196 million at the foreign office; Japan’s contribution was $57 million).

Heading into the weekend, Michael was tracking to open in the $65 million-$70 million range domestically, which would already have been enough to boast the biggest opening of all time for a music biopic, not adjusted for inflation. The current record-holder is Universal’s Straight Outta Compton ($60.1 million), followed by Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody ($55 million).

It’s also one of the biggest biopic openings of all time for any biopic. Other noteworthy victories: it’s also going to pass up Project Hail Mary to score the top domestic opening of 2026 for a non-franchise, non-tentpole, and is the sixth-biggest opening in the history of Lionsgate behind the first four Hunger Games installments and Summit’s final Twilight movie.

An inkling of Michael‘s potential was revealed when the film earned $12.6 million from Wednesday and Thursday previews, on par with 2026 sleeper blockbuster Hail Mary, and ahead of such event pics including Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer, which both reported preview grosses in the $10 million range.

The big unknown was how front-loaded Michael would be. By Saturday, it was clear it wasn’t just appointment viewing for hard-core fans. Strong word of mouth is magic: the film was graced with a 96 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — the best ever for the genre — PostTrak exit scores in the low 90s, and a definite recommend of 85 percent (those levels are rarely seen). It didn’t earn a perfect grade on CinemaScore, but it did earn a good enough A-.

Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson in Michael.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Nearly 40 percent of the film’s gross is coming from Imax and other premium large-format screens.

On Thursday, headlines focused on Michael‘s worrisome RT critics’ score, which bounced between 29 percent and 33 percent. By Thursday night, the critics’ score had risen to 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While that’s far from ideal, strong audience exits make up for it. Black moviegoers vastly over indexed, making up 38 percent of opening-day ticket buyers, but the movie succeeded in playing to a relatively diverse audience, with Latinos accounting for 26 percent of Friday’s audience, followed by white moviegoers at 26 percent, according to one snapshot provided by PostTrak.

Michael’s road to the big screen was long, and hit a major delay when the decision was made by King, Lionsgate and the Jackson Estate to opt for avoiding a legal challenge and end the movie before the superstar became engulfed in allegations of child sexual abuse. While rumors began swirling in the very latter part of the 1980s, the first public accusation didn’t emerge until 1993. The film’s initial budget of $155 million came in closer to $200 million after tens of millions were spent on additional photography needed to rejigger the third act. While there’s rampant talk of a sequel, some question whether it will really happen, since it would be impossible to avoid the darker years that followed.

The Jackson 5 in Antoine Fuqua’s Michael.

Glen Wilson/Lionsgate

“Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan don’t exactly break the mold with Michael, nor do they stuff it with major revelations. But they tap into a vein of melancholy underlaying the stratospheric success that’s surprisingly affecting,” The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic David Rooney writes in his review. “The online mob will be sharpening their pitchforks given the movie’s failure to address the accusations of child sexual abuse that tarnished Michael Jackson’s legacy. But the filmmakers get around that by focusing on his early career, ending with the 1988 Bad World Tour concert in London, years before allegations first surfaced. The epilogue card reading ‘His story continues’ does some heavy lifting.”

When Michael first came on to tracking three weeks ago, the domestic opening range looked to be $55 million to $60 million. While still a great number, subsequent spikes in interest indicated that Lionsgate was successful in tapping into the nostalgia factor, inspiring infrequent moviegoers to return to the multiplex in droves for the first time since the pandemic, or sparking interest among the most avid moviegoing demo, Gen Zers.

Jaafar Jackson, the real-life nephew of the late King of Pop, plays the titular role.

Glen Wilson/Lionsgate

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Adam Fogelson issued a statement early Saturday thanking all those involved, including Fuqua, King, Jaafar Jackson and the Jackson estate. “Above all, it reflects the tremendous outpouring of love and affection from moviegoers around the world, underscoring the strength and vitality of the theatrical box office,” he said. “If you give audiences what they want, they will come.”

Overseas, Michael is opening in 82 markets this weekend, excluding Japan. It is coming in No. 1 in 64 of those, and setting records for a music biopic in 63. It began unfurling in many key markets Wednesday, earning $16.6 million on its first day for an early running total of $18.5 million including previews. It earned another $13.2 million Thursday for an early total of $31.7 million.

International highlights through Thursday — ranked by *estimated openings through Sunday — can be found below, not adjusted for inflation.

U.K. & Ireland (*$13.8 million): Served up the biggest opening day for a musical biopic of all time with $2.6 million, ahead of the Wednesday opening of Bohemian Rhapsody and well above the Friday openings of Elvis and Rocketman. Thursday’s gross came in at $4.l million, or 71 percent of all tickets sold.

France (*$10.3 million): The film also scored $2.6 million on Wednesday to rank as the biggest opening day ever for any biopic, coming in well above the Wednesday openings of Oppenheimer and Bohemian Rhapsody. France delivered another $1.3 million on Thursday for a two-day cume of $3.9 million after capturing 32 percent of all admissions, and performing well across both daytime and night shows. 

Mexico (*$9.3 million): The pic opened to $1 million on Thursday, three more times than Rhapsody, and continues to account for 62 percent of all tickets bought.

Italy (*$8.1 million): Earned a strong $816,000 Thursday for a two-day total of of $2.1 million, and commanding 69 percent of the market. Michael, the biggest music biopic of all time, also reported the highest per-location average of any top title, or north of $16,000.

Germany (*$6.7 million): The pic, whose opening day earnings of $1.3 million beat Bohemian Rhapsody, delivered a strong Thursday for a running total of $2.1 million. (Michael made its world at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year in a nod to the importance of the King of fans overseas.

Other top-performing markets include Brazil, where Michael scored the top opening day ever for a Hollywood biopic, thanks to a strong first day and record previews that trumped both Rhapsody and Oppenheimer.

Kino and Lionsgate will release Michael in Japan in June.

April 25, 9:14 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates for Michael.
April 25, 6:06 p.m.: Updated with revised estimates for Michael.

This story was originally published April 24 at 1:58 a.m.

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Obama Relives Tan Suit Debacle In ‘Life, Larry & Pursuit of Unhappiness’

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As Larry David‘s comedic trip through U.S. history comes to an end, he took credit for one of the nation’s more recent presidential scandals.

On Friday’s season finale of the HBO sketch comedy miniseries Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance as himself in a sketch set in 2014, as David advised him to wear the now-infamous, outrage-inducing tan suit during his live press conference on military response to ISIS.

Following some banter on how the POTUS avoids stains, David accidentally spills juice on Obama’s suit jacket when he leaves the room. When the 44th president returns, the comedian recommends he wear the tan suit that Obama planned on taking it to Turin for NATO Summit, for “a daytime event, it’s outdoors, a little more casual.”

“First of all, it’s a gorgeous suit,” David declared. “And this is casual Friday!”

“It is a great suit,” admitted Obama, as David told him, “Oh boy, oh boy. I think this is the move. … Old lips won’t let you down. You’ll thank me!”

As Obama models the look, David gives him his signature, “Pretty good! Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.”

“You sure about this?” asks Obama, as David assures him, “Never been more sure about anything in my life. People are going to be talking about this for a long, long time.”

Obama’s cameo in the finale comes as David marks the United States Semiquencentennial with the seven-part sketch comedy limited series, which recounts major events in U.S. history through the comedian’s signature observational humor.

David’s longtime Curb Your Enthusiasm partner Jeff Schaffer, who serves as an executive producer on Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, previously told Deadline that Obama, who produced under his Higher Ground banner, reached out to his buddy David to ask if he’d be interested in making the show to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.

“When you’re doing a show about American history, you want to do it warts and right now we have this orange saggy wart that we wish would go away,” said Schaffer. “But the nice thing about having President Obama produce this and be a part of it is that this country’s had a lot of fuck ups, we’ve seemed to have learned very little, but we’re still moving forward sometimes, and then we move back a little bit, but we always move forward again. While Larry’s pointing out a lot of the steps back, the President is telling us we can still step forward.”

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Matthew McConaughey Performs “Quill” From ‘Rivals of Amziah King’ — Watch

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Matthew McConaughey shows off his vocal skills (and some hidden banjo talents) with his latest role in The Rivals of Amziah King.

On Friday, Lakeshore Records released the single and music video for “Quill” from the original motion picture soundtrack, performed by the Oscar-winning and co-star Ben Hardesty, also featuring Miranda Zickler, Angelina LookingGlass and Andrea Pister.

Set in the backwoods of Oklahoma, The Rivals of Amziah King follows the musically gifted Amaziah King (McConaughey) and his bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amaziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, he leaps at the chance to reconnect and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amaziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.

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Premiering Aug. 14 in theaters, the Andrew Patterson-written-and-directed drama also stars Angelina LookingGlass, Cole Sprouse, Jake Horowitz, Tony Revolori and Kurt Russell.

Producers are David Heyman, Teddy Schwarzman, Jeffrey Clifford, Michael Heimler, James Montague and Will Greenfield.

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Jane Schoenbrun On Tackling “Toxic Soup” Of Slasher Genre In ‘Camp Miasma’

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With their latest directorial outing, Jane Schoenbrun used subtle pieces of nostalgia to deconstruct the slasher genre.

The Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma writer/director explained to Deadline that they wanted to create “a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary,” noting the frequent symbolism of candy and junk food as providing an atmosphere “that’s actually safe” while diving into a horror movie or exploring sexuality after trauma.

“There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe,” said Schoenbrun, who is non-binary. “Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, ‘Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.’”

In Schoenbrun’s latest film, Hannah Einbinder stars as queer director Kris, who is tapped to helm a new installment of the long-running Camp Miasma horror franchise. While courting Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, to reprise her role, the pair spirals into a psychosexual frenzy as the slasher’s killer, Little Death (Jack Haven), comes to life.

Acknowledging the problematic trans representation of horror films like Psycho (1960), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995), Schoenbrun admitted the genre has been “catnip to me since I was 10 years old,” and they jumped at the chance to direct their own.

Jane Schoenbrun at the
Jane Schoenbrun attends the ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ premiere on Aug. 5, 2026 in New York City.

“So many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals … And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy,” they explained.

“But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants,” said Schoenbrun. “It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language.”

Read on about Jane Schoenbrun’s love letter to the slasher genre with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, now playing in theaters.

DEADLINE: It was really fun to see the slasher genre through your eyes. Tell me about finding inspiration in that genre and “final girls.” 

JANE SCHOENBRUN: I mean, it was the easiest thing in the world because it’s just one of those genres that has been catnip to me since I was 10 years old. I just raided the horror section of the video store as a kid from an age when I really shouldn’t have been doing that, like in 5th grade, I watched in the span of about one week, every Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I think that I was always drawn to movies and really anything entertainment where it felt forbidden in some way, like the thing on the tape, how is that even allowed? And that’s the thing that I love about a lot of my favorite slashers. Don’t get me wrong, I love like brutal ones, like I love Texas Chainsaw, that’s a nasty movie at its core, and that’s what’s so special about it. But so many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals of, OK, what’s the most outrageous way that like these like dumb kids can get killed? But watching it, it’s not about fear a lot of the time, it’s about joy and celebration. And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy. But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Sleepway Camp or Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface in drag. It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language. 

‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ (2026)

DEADLINE: I’m curious about the symbolism of all the processed junk food and the chandelier of wrappers.

SCHOENBRUN: The junk food in the movie, I forget when it found its way in there. It’s like so much of the movie is about, like I said, ritual, about being in a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary, whether that be Kris [Hannah Einbinder] in bed, with, you know, with Raisinets and the popcorn, watching a schlocky horror movie, or the two characters learning how to be present and enjoy sex after a lot of trauma. There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe. Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, “Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.”

DEADLINE: And one thing I really love—I just feel like it’s a theme in your work—is how it depicts the way media and entertainment influence us. Why does that inspire you? 

SCHOENBRUN: I think it comes from a fascination and sensitivity to the complex relationship between what we think of as fiction and what we think of as reality, which we tend to, as a society, think of as pointing in one direction. Like, reality dictates fiction, not vice-versa, but when you actually look at the way the world works, it’s like one echoes off the other. And I think a complicated, sometimes terrifying and sometimes beautiful way, where the fiction, the cultural norms, the things we grow up looking at on our screens, the roles that we’re told people play, they kind of inspire us to create reality. There’s something liberating when you start thinking in that way. I think it’s a way of thinking that we as a culture, could do a lot more of. To think about the idea of fiction inspiring reality just as much as reality is inspiring fiction, is a potential path to liberating us from this hellscape that they’re telling us is the only way the world can be. 

Gillian Anderson in ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ (2026)

DEADLINE: And I know you have the Secretary reading. Tell me what it’s been like prepping for that and why you all chose that movie. 

SCHOENBRUN: I mean, that was such a huge influence on on Miasma. There just aren’t that many fun and funny movies about deviant sex. And just the way that movie is like feather light while talking about really raw and taboo things, it is just really inspiring to me. And the dynamic between those two main characters is definitely one that had a lot of influence on on Kris and Billy’s [Gillian Anderson] relationship in Miasma. And it’s already to me a very queer movie in its way, but having Gillian reading the James Spader part and Hannah reading the Maggie Gyllenhaal part, I think it’s just gonna be like a very unique joy. Honestly, we’ve been prepping a little bit, but I think it’s just gonna be about getting up there and feeling the chemistry of it all, and just letting these folks who we have all gotten to know each other really, really well, but we haven’t actually done anything wacky and creative like that in a while, like as a reunion, it’s gonna be a real blast, I think.

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