“Michael” is in its final run in theaters right now, and the number everybody is watching is $1 billion. It’s sitting at $939 million worldwide. Close enough to feel it. Far enough that it may not happen.
The Official Trailer – “Michael” Biopic
The film opened in April with $217 million globally in a single weekend, the biggest debut in music-biopic history.
CRITICS MOSTLY HATED IT, GIVING IT A 38% ON ROTTEN TOMATOES AND CALLING IT SANITIZED.
Audiences didn’t care. They showed up in massive numbers, danced in the aisles, brought their kids, and came back for second viewings.
By week three, it had crossed $570 million. By week six, it had passed $800 million and overtaken Bohemian Rhapsody as the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.
Then the digital release hit, and theaters started dropping it. Last weekend, the movie earned $2.9 million across fewer than 2,000 screens. The legs are running out.
The Movie Broke Records!
Getting from $939 million to $1 billion in the final stretch of a theatrical run, after a digital release has already pulled casual viewers away, is a very hard ask.
JAPAN HASN’T FULLY OPENED YET, WHICH GIVES IT A REAL SHOT. But the window is closing fast.
The heartbreaking part isn’t the number. It’s that a film critics wrote off before it opened, about a man critics wrote off when he was alive, came within $61 million of one of the rarest box office milestones in cinema history.
The people spoke clearly. Whether the billion follows or not, that part already happened.
Now reports say that A SEQUEL IS ON ITS WAY, SET TO BE RELEASED IN 2028, that will follow the rest of Michael Jackson’s story. The billion-dollar dream may be slipping right now, but the sequel may just take it there.