‘Michael’ Moonwalks Past Competition to Win Weekend Box Office

Michael, a biopic about Michael Jackson starring the pop star’s own nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, beat back bad reviews to easily take the top spot at the weekend box office. The movie took in $97 million at the domestic box office and $217 million worldwide. That’s the most any biopic has ever made in its first weekend, handily beating out predecessors like 2015’s Straight Outta Compton and 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Bohemian Rhapsody ended up making a staggering $910 million worldwide, and if Michael can build up some momentum, it may well eclipse that. Granted, Michael cost a lot more to make: it had a budget of $155 million, a huge amount for a biopic, and that was before extensive reshoots pushed the price tag closer to $200 million. But it should easily turn a profit regardless. And there could eventually be a sequel that may get into some of the parts of Jackson’s life that this first movie had to cut out, like the allegations of child sexual abuse made against him.

Michael is also the biggest hit for Lionsgate in years, ever since the halcyon days when the studio was releasing the original run of Hunger Games movies. Lionsgate’s biggest film ever is 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which earned $865 million globally, so Michael has its target.

‘Michael’ Ends ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s’ Reign at the Top of the Box Office

After four weeks in theaters, The Super Mario Galaxy movie finally slipped to second place. With $386 million earned at the domestic box office and $831 million worldwide, it remains the biggest movie of the year so far. In third place came Project Hail Mary, which is still doing well after six weeks in theaters, having made $631 million worldwide. Those three films have been leading the pack these past couple months and giving hope to movie theater owners everywhere. If you get loose with it and focus on Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, they kind of form an outer space-themed trifecta.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy came in fourth place this past weekend, bringing its haul to $23 million domestically and $65 million worldwide. It’s not in Michael’s league, but it’s still made a pretty profit on its $22 million budget, proving that people are always willing to go to the theater to see horror movies. In fifth place came The Drama, a star-driven drama which has also made a nice profit on its budget of $28 million; so far it’s made $44 million domestically and $76 million worldwide.

The Pixar film Hoppers came in sixth, a respectable place to be in given that it’s been in theaters for eight weeks now. Its worldwide total is now at $370 million. Beyond that, we have a few movies that aren’t doing quite as well. The romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany has made a respectable $20.45 million at the worldwide box office, but that likely won’t be enough to turn a profit on its $18 million budget. Over Your Dead Body, a new action comedy starring Jason Segel and Samara Weaving, made $1.42 million. And then there’s Mother Mary, an A24 film starring Anne Hathaway as a pop star mounting a comeback. It made around $1.48 million in its first weekend of wide release. Against a budget of $20 million, that’s not great.

Check out the full top 10 for the weekend below:

Anne Hathaway need not fret too much, because next weekend will see the release of the hotly anticipated sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, which has a good chance of becoming a big hit. After that, we have Mortal Kombat 2 and The Mandaorian & Grogu coming later in May. Hopefully they will keep up the box office momentum generated by the likes of Scream 7, Project Hail Mary, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and now Michael.

Per Variety, overall box office is up 15% from the same point last year, which goes to support the idea that 2026 may finally be the year that movie theaters bounce back from their post-pandemic lull.

Release Date

April 24, 2026

Runtime

130 minutes

Producers

Graham King, John Branca, John McClain