Preview:
- ‘Michael’ has set records for biopic movies on its first weekend.
- It topped the domestic box office with $97 million.
- Elsewhere, new releases struggled.
It may have arrived laden with controversies about re-shoots and didn’t exactly strike a chord with critics, but audiences have certainly embraced ‘Michael’, the biopic of troubled music superstar Michael Jackson.The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, has kicked off its run at the box office as an instant success, earning $97 million for first place.
Lft8D7heZ1vUsG1f3vG1E1The movie’s ticket sales rank as the best start of all time for a biopic, smashing the record set by 2015’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’ ($60 million). And they tower above 2018’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which opened to $51 million. Can it match the latter’s huge run, though? That’s a bigger question. Still, with $217 million globally in one weekend, it’s a solid start.
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What else happened at the box office this weekend?
Previous champion ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ was pushed down to second place after three weekends in the No. 1 spot. Universal’s animated sequel added $21.2 million, boosting revenues to $384 million domestically and more than $800 million globally.
‘Project Hail Mary’, meanwhile, was third with $13.2 million, a remarkable tally for a film in its sixth weekend of release. So far, the space epic has generated a mighty $305 million in North America and $613 million worldwide.
What about other new releases?
Besides ‘Michael,’ other new releases fared less well. A24’s thriller ‘Mother Mary’, starring Anne Hathaway as a pop star on the eve of a comeback, earned $1.3 million.
And ‘Lorne’, a documentary about ‘Saturday Night Live’ boss Lorne Michaels, struggled to break out with $70,000 from 248 theaters. The film has collected $426,000 while playing in limited release.
List of Musician Biopics:
- ‘Sid and Nancy‘ (1986)
- ‘The Doors‘ (1991)
- ‘Ray‘ (2004)
- ‘Walk the Line‘ (2005)
- ‘I’m Not There‘ (2007)
- ‘Control‘ (2007)
- ‘Nowhere Boy‘ (2010)
- ‘The Runaways‘ (2010)
- ‘Get on Up‘ (2014)
- ‘Love & Mercy‘ (2015)
- ‘Straight Outta Compton‘ (2015)
- ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ (2018)
- ‘Rocketman‘ (2019)
- ‘The Dirt‘ (2019)
- ‘Elvis‘ (2022)
- ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody‘ (2022)
- ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘ (2022)
- ‘Maestro‘ (2023)
- ‘Bob Marley: One Love‘ (2024)
- ‘Back to Black‘ (2024)
- ‘Girl You Know It’s True‘ (2024)
- ‘A Complete Unknown’ (2024)
- ‘Better Man’ (2025)
- ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere‘ (2025)
- ‘Michael‘ (2026)