'Michael' Becomes Highest Grossing Biopic Ever, Nears $1B

It’s official. Michael Jackson now has the top-selling music biopic of all-time. The movie starring Jaafar Jackson as his uncle, directed by Antoine Fuqua, has made $911.9 million and is on its way to a likely billion dollars at the box office.

The feel-good movie details Jackson’s rise before 1993, when his first accuser surfaced. The movie was reshot – to the tune of $50 million – after producers realized that Jackson’s settlement with Jordie Chandler included a clause that prohibited any reference to the case.

Released in 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody was the previous top-grossing music film. It covered the life of Freddie Mercury and the English band Queen, which gained popularity with songs like the movie’s title and “We Are The Champions” in the ’70s and ’80s.

Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King likely doesn’t mind that Michael has sent his picture to second place, as he’s a producer on the Jackson biopic as well.

Michael has now been released to VOD platforms and is now available in theatres in Japan, which is likely to take it over the billion-dollar mark sooner or later.

Per Deadline, Michael is the second-grossing U.S. movie of the year so far, behind only the Super Mario Gravity Movie. It’s the top-grossing film in theatrical release ever for Lionsgate and has earned $358.6 million in domestic box office receipts and $553.3 million from international grosses.

Michael is the second-highest-grossing movie biopic ever, behind Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film about theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, considered the father of the atomic bomb. It has grossed $975.8 million so far.

In its opening weekend in April, Michael set a domestic box office record, earning $97 million.

The two-hour, 17-minute movie details Jackson’s career from his time in the Jackson 5 with his brothers through his ’80s heyday. It stars Colman Domingo as his father and manager Joe Jackson, Nia Long as his mother Katherine Jackson and Kendrick Sampson as Quincy Jones.

Jackson, one of the biggest music superstars in history, died at age 50 of cardiac arrest after acute propofol intoxication.

The movie’s success continues to propel Jackson’s status as the highest-earning dead celebrity, which Forbes confirmed again in 2025. Jackson has earned more than $3.5 billion since he died in 2009.

Given the movie’s success, there will almost certainly be a sequel.

Adam Fogelson, Lionsgate’s motion picture chair, told company shareholders earlier this year, “We are really excited about the progress we’re making with respect to a second Michael film. All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well.”