Michael Overtakes Oppenheimer With Biggest Box Office Debut Ever for a Biopic

Michael made a huge $217 million at the global box office, enough to secure the record for the biggest opening weekend ever for a biopic. That’s ahead of the previous biopic record holder, Oppenheimer, which debuted to $174 million in 2023.

$97 million came from North American theaters, while 120.365 million came internationally. Michael is behind only The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in terms of global box office debuts this year.

According to Variety, Michael cost nearly $200 million to produce (this includes reshoots for the third act totalling around $15 million). But based on this start, Michael will easily turn a profit during its theatrical run.

Michael’s box office success comes despite accusations of “whitewashing.” The movie ends in 1988 during the Bad tour, and does not feature Michael Jackson’s high-profile child abuse allegations. Earlier this week, Colman Domingo, who plays Michael Jackson’s father, Joe, suggested a sequel could deal with the allegations.

Michael launched to poor review scores from critics, too, but a 4.8 out of 5 audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. IGN’s Michael review returned a 3/10. “Michael does the impossible: It makes the King of Pop boring,” we said.

Meanwhile, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie added another $36.7 million internationally this weekend after finally launching in Japan. Internationally, the Nintendo movie is now on $444.961 million, which is just below the first film at the same point. Globally, it’s now on $831.474 million, and looks to set to eventually cross the $1 billion mark.

Project Hail Mary is showing remarkable staying power at theaters, adding another $12.2 million on its sixth weekend. The extended box office came after Amazon announced a return to Imax theaters for the Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie. Co-director Christopher Miller announced last week that Project Hail Mary won’t hit streaming platforms any time soon. Globally, it’s on $613.3 million.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.