Jaafar Jackson now fronts the biopic that has crossed $977.4 million worldwide. Michael passed Oppenheimer in its tenth weekend and set the new high-water mark for the genre.
The film took in $9.2 million over the past weekend, lifting its domestic total to $370.2 million and its foreign total to $607.2 million. For Lionsgate and Universal, that puts Michael within striking distance of another round-number milestone while keeping the title in active release.
Michael's 46-day path
Michael reached the record while still on a 46-day theatrical window to PVOD. That kind of timing leaves less room for a long box-office tail than the older rollout that kept Oppenheimer in theaters much longer before it moved to PVOD/DVD and later Peacock in the U.S.
Universal tabulated $559.7 million of Michael's foreign total from its own markets, a sign that the overseas side of the run is doing heavy lifting even before the final territories are fully done with the film. The release strategy matters here because every week in theaters still has a direct chance to add to the total before home viewing takes over.
Oppenheimer and Japan
Oppenheimer finished at $975.8 million after a run that won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Christopher Nolan. It also got a final territory boost from Japan on March 29, 2024, which is why Michael had to clear a high bar rather than a soft record.
Michael still overtaking that total is the cleaner business story: a title built around Michael Jackson and directed by Antoine Fuqua has now outgrossed a prestige runner with Oscar hardware. Graham King has already seen the same pattern once, because Bohemian Rhapsody was the musical biopic benchmark before Michael moved past it.
Toward $1 billion
Michael is already the highest-grossing musical biopic ever, and this record now pushes it close enough to $1 billion that the industry conversation shifts from whether it can lead the category to whether it can join a much smaller club. Whether Michael actually crosses that line is the open question left by the current run.
For Jaafar Jackson, the numbers matter more than the premise: the title role is now attached to a film that has already beaten Oppenheimer and Bohemian Rhapsody on global gross, with more theatrical revenue still possible while Japan and Russia remain in play.
