<\/p>\n
Michael<\/em> is on pace to shatter box office records.<\/p>\n Lionsgate\u2019s Michael Jackson<\/a> biopic debuted in theaters Friday (April 24) and is tracking for a $94 million\u2013$100 million domestic opening, alongside a global launch north of $200 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n If those projections hold, the Antoine Fuqua-directed film would deliver the biggest opening ever for a music biopic, surpassing Universal\u2019s Straight Outta Compton<\/em>, which debuted to $60.1 million<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n Fox\u2019s Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> opened to $51 million<\/a> in 2018, ranking as the second-biggest debut for a music biopic. The Queen<\/a> biopic remains the highest-grossing music biopic<\/a> of all time, with $910 million worldwide, and earned Rami Malek a best actor Oscar<\/a> for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury.<\/p>\n \u201cThis record-breaking performance is a testament to the incredible filmmaking team of producer Graham King and director Antoine Fuqua, an amazing cast led by Jaafar Jackson\u2019s singular performance, our world-class partners at Universal, the cooperation and support of the Michael Jackson Estate, and our tireless and exceptionally talented Lionsgate team,\u201d Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cAbove all, it reflects the tremendous outpouring of love and affection from moviegoers around the world, underscoring the strength and vitality of the theatrical box office. If you give audiences what they want, they will come.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael<\/em> grossed $38.5 million domestically on opening day Friday and was off to a strong start overseas, with an international launch in the $114 million range, THR<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n Heading into the weekend, the film had been tracking to open between $65 million and $70 million domestically. Nearly 40% of its gross is coming from IMAX and other premium large-format screens. The biopic\u2019s momentum was evident early, earning $12.6 million from Wednesday and Thursday preview screenings.<\/p>\n Michael<\/em> has drawn strong audience reception, with a 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, PostTrak exit scores in the low 90s, and a definite recommend of 85%. It also earned an A- on CinemaScore. The movie is attracting a broad audience across demographics, led by Black and female movie-goers, according to THR<\/em>.<\/p>\n The long-anticipated film stars the King of Pop\u2019s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, charting his rise from fronting The Jackson 5<\/a> in the 1970s to launching a solo career that reached historic heights. The story culminates with the release of Thriller<\/em>, the best-selling album in pop music history.<\/p>\n Michael<\/em> is the first installment of a planned two-part biopic.<\/p>\n <\/a> Billboard VIP Pass<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael is on pace to shatter box office records. Lionsgate\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic debuted in theaters Friday (April 24) and is tracking for a $94 million\u2013$100 million domestic opening, alongside a global launch north of $200 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. More from Billboard If those projections hold, the Antoine Fuqua-directed film would deliver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[466106,383102,359957,82851,304696,393633,369099,31190],"class_list":["post-2390114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-antoine-fuqua-directed","tag-biopic","tag-jaafar-jackson","tag-lionsgate","tag-michael-jackson","tag-michael-jackson-estate","tag-straight-outta-compton","tag-the-hollywood-reporter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Charli-XCX-and-George-Daniel-marry-for-second-time-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390115,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390114\/revisions\/2390115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}