The Michael Jackson biopic *Michael* did not just win its opening weekend—it erased the competition. Released the same weekend as the film *Desert Warrior*, *Michael* earned $97 million domestically, the biggest opening weekend of any biopic in history, passing *Oppenheimer* and shattering *Straight Outta Compton*’s long-standing record of $60. 2 million. It nearly doubled *Bohemian Rhapsody*’s $51.
1 million opening. Globally, it pulled in $217 million in a single weekend. Critics largely rejected the film. It sat at a 40% Rotten Tomatoes score, with the BBC giving it one star and calling it a “bland and barely competent daytime TV movie.
” The main criticism centered on the story feeling sanitized and too focused on protecting Jackson’s image rather than exploring the allegations and controversies that surrounded his later life. Audiences disagreed emphatically, giving the film a 96% verified audience score, an A-minus CinemaScore, and a 7. 7 on IMDb. The damage to other films was swift and severe.
*The Mummy*, directed by Lee Cronin and produced by Jason Blum and James Wan, opened the prior weekend to a shaky $13. 5 million. When *Michael* arrived, it fell 58. 6%, dropping to $5.
6 million. With a $22 million budget and an estimated break-even around $55 million, the film is trending nowhere near recovery. A24’s *Mother Mary*, a psychological drama directed by David Lowery and starring Anne Hathaway, was released the same weekend as *Michael* and landed in ninth place with just $1. 1 million from 1,103 theaters.
Its total gross reached only $2. 2 million against a $20 million budget. That same weekend, *Michael* made roughly $96 million more than *Mother Mary* did. The timing proved especially awkward for Hathaway, whose sequel *The Devil Wears Prada 2* was set to open a week later.
The most severe casualty was *Desert Warrior*, a $150 million epic starring Anthony Mackie that had been in production since 2021. Distributed by Vertical Entertainment, it opened the same weekend as *Michael* and made $475,000 from 1,010 theaters. A film that spent five years trying to reach theaters was effectively erased in a single weekend. *Michael* also passed the entire lifetime grosses of several films that had been running for weeks.
*Scream 7*, a franchise best, had earned $213. 5 million globally over months of release; *Michael* passed that in one weekend. Other films lapped in a single weekend include *Goat* ($190. 5 million), *Send Help* ($94 million), and *The Drama* ($99.
9 million). Industry executives responded publicly. Michael O’Leary, head of Cinema United, said *Michael* proved audiences will show up for compelling stories on the big screen. Lionsgate chair Adam Fogelson said simply, “If you give audiences what they want, they will come.
” Director Antoine Fuqua, who directed *Michael*, compared the experience to handing in the director’s cut of *Emancipation* on the same day Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, calling the whole situation bizarre. The film had not yet opened in Korea or Japan, two major markets for Jackson’s fan base, leading observers to project the film could reach $1 billion globally by the end of the month.
