‘Michael’ becomes highest-grossing music biopic in history – overtaking ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with $911M+ at global box office – Music Business Worldwide

Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic, is now the highest-grossing music biopic in history, having grossed $911.9 million at the global box office to overtake Bohemian Rhapsody.
Lionsgate confirmed the figure to Rolling Stone.
That total comprises $358.6 million domestically and $553.3 million from international markets and, as the studio noted, it does not yet include the film’s most recent weekend, meaning the record is still climbing.
It edges Michael past the $910.8 million lifetime worldwide gross of Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic that won star Rami Malek a Best Actor Oscar.
The margin at the point of overtake was slim, barely $1 million, but it widened fast: by Sunday (June 14), Michael’s worldwide haul had reached approximately $932.2 million.
The scale of that number becomes clearer in context. Only Michael and Bohemian Rhapsody have taken the music-biopic genre anywhere near the $900 million mark.
Every other title sits far below. Box Office Mojo figures put Elvis (2022) a distant third at $288.7 million, followed by Straight Outta Compton (2015) at $202.2 million, Rocketman (2019) at roughly $195 million, Bob Marley: One Love (2024) at $180.8 million, and the Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown (2024) at $140 million.
No music biopic outside the top two has crossed $300 million.
For the music industry, the box-office milestone is only part of the story. The film has driven a sharp, sustained surge in Michael Jackson‘s streaming since it opened.
When MBW reported the film passing $500 million, Luminate data showed Jackson’s catalog streams jumping 95% on its opening weekend versus the weekend before, his Spotify monthly listeners climbing by 5 million (from around 68 million to 73 million), and 14 of his songs charting simultaneously on Spotify’s global weekly chart, led by Billie Jean at No. 3. Thriller also returned to the Billboard 200’s top 10.
That windfall matters commercially to Sony Music Group. In a deal that closed in late 2023 and was cleared by a California appeals court in August 2024, Sony Music acquired a 50% stake in Jackson’s publishing and recorded-masters catalog, a transaction that valued his music rights at around $1.5 billion, with Sony reported to have paid in the region of $750 million for its half.
The catalog includes his Mijac publishing company, home to Jackson’s own compositions plus works by Sly & the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Ray Charles.
There is an added twist for Sony. The company also controls Queen‘s catalog, acquired in a deal reportedly valued at around £1 billion ($1.27 billion). That means both the film Michael just dethroned, Bohemian Rhapsody, which is built on Queen’s music, and Michael itself now drive streaming activity into Sony-owned catalogs.
The Jackson acquisition was one of a run of blockbuster catalog deals by Sony Music Group under chairman Rob Stringer that have cumulatively pushed the company’s M&A spending past $6 billion over the past decade, per MBW’s estimate.
Michael was directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan, with Jaafar Jackson, Jackson’s nephew, making his screen debut in the title role. It was produced by Graham King, who also produced Bohemian Rhapsody, alongside the estate’s co-executors John Branca and John McClain. Lionsgate distributed the film in the US, with Universal Pictures handling international markets.
The result rewrites several record books. Michael is now Lionsgate‘s highest-grossing theatrical release ever. Its $218.8 million global opening was the biggest debut for a music biopic in history, while its $97.2 million domestic bow beat the prior genre record: Straight Outta Compton‘s $60.2 million in 2015.
The film also ranks as the second-biggest release of 2026 worldwide and the second-highest-grossing biopic of any kind, trailing only Oppenheimer (around $975.8 million). For Graham King, it means surpassing his own genre record.
The film only opened in Japan, long one of Jackson’s strongest markets, on June 12, leaving room for the total to grow further. With momentum still building, Michael could yet become only the second film of 2026 to cross $1 billion worldwide.Music Business Worldwide
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