Despite receiving mostly unfavourable reviews, Antoine Fuqua’s musical biopic Michael, which stars Jafar Jackson as his uncle and the famous pop phenomenon Michael Jackson, has achieved the largest opening for a biopic in history.It made $97 million in North America and Canada, just short of the historic $100 million domestically.
The Lionsgate-produced movie has far outperformed previous Hollywood biopics with the highest box office receipts. F Gary Gray’s 2015 musical biography Straight Outta Compton, which chronicled the ascent and decline of the hip-hop group NWA under their manager Jerry Heller, was dethroned. In North America and Canada, the Universal Pictures film, which starred O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, and Jason Mitchell as Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E, respectively, debuted at $60.2 million.
Additionally, Michael has outperformed Christopher Nolan’s 2023 biopic Oppenheimer, which starred Cillian Murphy as “the father of the atomic bomb,” J Robert Oppenheimer. Due to its “R” rating for language and nudity, the movie, which won Murphy the Best Actor Oscar the following year, debuted at $82.5 million in North America and Canada.
It also outperformed Bryan vocalist’s 2018 musical biography Bohemian Rhapsody, which starred Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, the lead vocalist of the Queens. The film debuted at $51 million in North America and Canada and won Malek Best Actor at the 91st Academy Awards.
Michael also overtook The Super Mario Galaxy Movie as the top-grossing movie in North America during its first weekend of release. It is now ranked second, after Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, Kristoffer Borgli’s dark comedy The Drama, starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s sci-fi fantasy Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling.
Michael Jackson biopic movie
Antoine Fuqua‘s biopic film Michael (2026) tells the story of Michael Jackson from his early years in The Jackson 5 to his rise to fame as an adult. The film, which centers on Jaafar Jackson and culminates during the 1984 Victory tour, focuses on his creative process, iconic performances, personal challenges, and complicated relationship with his father, Joe.
In their respective cinematic debuts, Jackson is portrayed by his nephew Jaafar Jackson and as a child by Juliano Krue Valdi. ENigeria Newspaper also understands that Nia Long, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo are among the supporting cast members.
