'Michael' Crosses $1 Billion, Becoming the First Biopic Ever to Hit the Mark

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael has officially crossed $1 billion at the global box office, according to Rentrak data — making it Lionsgate's first-ever billion-dollar release, and the first biopic in film history to reach that threshold.

How It Got There

Nobody expected this kind of run out of the gate. Michael opened April 24 with $217 million worldwide, blowing past tracking that had projected something closer to $65-$70 million domestically. From there, the records kept falling. It passed Bohemian Rhapsody's $911.9 million on June 14 to become music's highest-grossing biopic, then leapfrogged Oppenheimer's $975.8 million on June 28 to take the crown outright, regardless of subject matter. The final push came from Japan, where the film only opened June 12 but tapped straight into decades of built-in Michael Jackson fandom, carrying the total the rest of the way to ten figures.

A Lifeline for Lionsgate

The timing couldn't matter more for the studio behind it. As recently as 2024, Lionsgate was putting out 17 films a year and pulling in barely $251 million total at the domestic box office — a fraction of what it managed back in 2012, when The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Expendables were all still churning out hits and the studio cleared $1.72 billion. Shares had sunk to $5.76, and there was open talk in Hollywood that a sale was Lionsgate's only realistic path forward. Michael changes that calculus. Paired with the broader lineup Motion Picture Group chief Adam Fogelson has been building, it's the clearest proof yet that Lionsgate can still manufacture a hit entirely on its own terms.

The Critical Divide

Box office success hasn't translated into critical goodwill. Michael sits in the high 30s on Rotten Tomatoes' critics score, and most of that pushback traces back to one decision: leaving out the child sexual abuse allegations that followed Jackson through the last years of his life. That wasn't purely a creative call, either — reshoots said to cost as much as $50 million were needed after the Jackson estate raised a settlement clause barring the depiction of one accuser, forcing the filmmakers to rebuild the ending around Jackson's 1987 Bad tour instead. Audiences clearly didn't share the critics' reservations, handing the film a 97% audience score and an A- CinemaScore. The film ends on the on-screen text "The Story Continues," and Lionsgate has already confirmed a sequel is in the works.