‘Michael’ Moonwalks Tall With Biopic Record $217 Global Box Office Opening

Lionsgate/Universal’s “Michael” is setting the box office up for a big summer, breaking the all-time opening weekend record for biopics set three years ago by Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” with a launch of $97 million domestic and $217 million worldwide, passing the $82.4 million domestic/$174 million global total of the 2023 Best Picture Oscar winner.

“Michael” has been circled by theater owners as one of the big tentpoles to look out for ever since it was first announced that Michael Jackson would be played by his nephew, Jaafar. But the question was whether it would be simply a huge hit or one that could smash records left and right.

After this weekend, “Michael” is well on its way to becoming the latter. It is a lock to become the first Lionsgate release outside of the “Hunger Games” or “Twilight” franchises to gross more than $200 million domestic and will become the studio’s highest grossing film since the main “Hunger Games” series ended in 2015. A domestic multiple of more than 3x will put “Michael” past the $283 million of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” to become one of Lionsgate’s top 5 highest grossing films of all time before inflation adjustment.

And globally, “Michael” will now take aim at the unadjusted all time biopic record held by “Oppenheimer” with $975 million, followed by the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” with $906 million from its 2018 release.

More to come…