Photo Credit: Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson by Jourdynn Jackson (@jourdynnjackson / Instagram)
Michael continues to drive fans to the theater at a record pace, with worldwide box office numbers surpassing $430.3 million after its second week.
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic continues to exceed expectations, with overseas numbers boosting its overall worldwide success following its second weekend. Now, Michael has surpassed The Intouchables at the worldwide box office to become the 10th highest-grossing biopic of all time—and it’s still climbing.
Michael raked in $54.5 million in its second weekend at the domestic box office, making it the biggest second weekend for a music biopic at only a 43.9% drop from its first weekend. Even more impressively, the film earned the biggest second weekend for a live-action film at the domestic box office this year. Domestically, it has crossed the $184.3 million threshold and will soon exceed $200 million.
Meanwhile, overseas, Michael brought in $86.1 million in its second weekend, a 29.2% decline from its opening weekend. That brings its international numbers to $246.1 million across 82 markets. Worldwide, the biopic has exceeded $430.3 million in just two weeks—exceeding Bohemian Rhapsody’s $285 million at the same point in its release.
It is well on its way to surpassing the $435 million global total of Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman, which would make it the ninth-highest-grossing biopic of all time, by some estimates. According to Box Office Mojo, Michael is actually the eighth-highest-grossing biopic, surpassing both The Wolf of Wall Street and The King’s Speech.
Films still outranking it include Oppenheimer ($975.8 million), Bohemian Rhapsody ($910.8 million), Hi, Mom ($841.6.6 million), The Passion of the Christ ($612.0 million), American Sniper ($547.6 million), The Revenant ($532.9 million), and The Greatest Showman ($434.9 million).
Analysts anticipate that it will hit the $500 million mark in its third weekend, and between $800 million and $1 billion worldwide overall. The film stops at the beginning of Michael Jackson’s Bad tour, not delving into the sexual assault allegations against the pop star. While the film was originally supposed to revisit that territory, a settlement provision with one of the accusers put the kibosh on that due to wording that would prevent a big screen dramatization of that first trial.
