Photo Credit: Lionsgate
The King of Pop is now the King of Biopics, as Michael moonwalks past Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest-grossing musical biopic in history.
It’s official: Universal and Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael has surpassed the Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time with $911.9 million worldwide. The milestone arrived as the Antoine Fuqua-directed movie finally made its debut in Japan—a territory that could single-handedly make Michael the second film to cross the $1 billion threshold at the global box office, after Universal’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Lionsgate partnered with Kino for the Japanese release, the same studio that secured theatrical rights in Russia, where the film has already raked in $10 million. Lionsgate is handling the domestic distribution, while Universal took the wheel for the broader international release.
Michael is sitting pretty at $358.6 million at the domestic box office and $553.3 million internationally. Bohemian Rhapsody—also produced by Graham King, who produced Michael—grossed $216.6 million domestically and $694.3 million overseas.
Among the list of box office records Michael has broken includes the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time, Lionsgate’s highest grossing theatrical release ever at the worldwide box office, the largest global opening weekend ever for a musical biopic, the highest-grossing biopic of all time in the United States, and the largest domestic opening weekend for a musical biopic. The film also achieved the highest-grossing opening ever for a musical biopic in 65 international markets, 40 of which surpassed the lifetime of Bohemian Rhapsody, including Mexico, Brazil, and France.
The film’s success is even sweeter given the challenges that the studio faced in its making. After the Jackson estate overlooked a clause in the settlement with one of Michael’s accusers, the studio was forced to do $50 million in reshoots to end the film at an earlier point in the artist’s career than originally planned. But that setback has ultimately proved to be a lucrative one, given the enormous success of the finished product.
Moreover, there are rumors that a sequel is in the works—undoubtedly utilizing at least some of the footage that was previously scrapped. And that makes sense, given that Michael Jackson’s astronomical ascent to fame was only heating up in the ‘80s, when the first film ends.
