Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” closes $22.9M gap on “Bohemian Rhapsody” worldwide

Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic released April 24, has now grossed $888.1 million worldwide, putting it just $22.9 million behind Bohemian Rhapsody, which has pulled in $911 million. Billboard’s box-office tally, sourced from boxofficemojo.com, frames it as a near race for the top slot: Michael earned $44.8 million worldwide in the past week, so it is positioned to overtake the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody on Billboard’s list of musician biopics by worldwide gross.

That $22.9 million gap is the whole story. It is small enough to feel plausible on a typical studio release timeline, and big enough to keep attention locked. If Michael keeps landing roughly the pace implied by its past week total, the outcome is not theoretical. Billboard explicitly notes that “by next week, it looks like we'll have a new leader” on the list.

Why this matters beyond movie trivia: the category is acting like a market signal. Billboard lists these as the highest-grossing biopics of musicians in terms of worldwide box office. In other words, this is not just about one film finding an audience. It is about whether a proven formula, anchored in globally recognizable artists, continues to dominate across regions. When the No. 1 spot is within one week’s worth of global receipts, studios and their partners gain hard evidence to feed into future slate decisions.

Michael’s global draw is also unusually legible in the breakdown. According to Box Office Mojo figures cited by Billboard, international ticket sales account for slightly more than 60% of Michael’s worldwide box office total to date. Specifically, international is 60.1% of the tally, while 39.9% comes from the U.S. and Canada. That mix matters for executives because international performance often dictates how comfortably a film can clear marketing and distribution risk, and how confident investors can be that a hit is not merely local.

Board and deal dynamics show up in the producer names. Graham King co-produced Michael with longtime Jackson associates John Branca and John McClain, and Billboard notes he also co-produced Bohemian Rhapsody and a third music biopic on this list, Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons. For leadership teams, this is a rare instance where the same production leadership is directly connected to multiple entries competing at the very top of the worldwide ranking. That kind of repeatability is the kind of pattern investors pay attention to when they assess whether a success is durable or one-off.

Billboard also includes an explicit methodology note that adds another layer of strategy. It says the list covers the highest-grossing biopics of music stars by worldwide box office, and that it did not include a few high-grossing films about real-life music personalities because the subjects are not well-known music stars in their own right. The examples given are The Sound of Music (Maria von Trapp and the Trapp Family Singers), Green Book (pianist and composer Don Shirley), Florence Foster Jenkins (an heiress and soprano), and Music of the Heart (violinist and music educator Roberta Guaspari). It also notes Meryl Streep starred in the latter two films. In plain English, the list is trying to separate “music-adjacent stories” from stories built around music superstars with mass brand recognition.

So what is the second-order implication for peers? If Michael is truly on pace to become the new top-grossing musician biopic worldwide, it reinforces the idea that global audiences reward specific kinds of IP: iconic musicians, emotionally legible arcs, and marketing that travels across borders. It also suggests that investors underwriting similar biopic slates can look at worldwide weekly momentum, not just opening weekend charts, when deciding whether to lean in. And for studios and producers, it strengthens the case that international share, not only domestic draw, can be the lever that swings rankings.

Finally, there is a cultural and commercial echo in the historical note. Billboard says Jackson has a long history of ranking No. 1 on lists, dating back to The Jackson 5 landing their first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Want You Back” in 1970. That context matters because it connects box office performance to long-running mainstream staying power. When a film draws on an artist with decades of chart history, it is effectively importing an established audience memory. In a crowded release calendar, that can be the difference between a strong opening and a climb that lands you at No. 1.

For executives and board members, the stake is straightforward: the window is closing in real time. With Michael at $888.1 million worldwide and Bohemian Rhapsody at $911 million, the next leaderboard update is not just a headline. It is a live data point on what the market will reward when another high-profile music story hits theaters and has to earn its place week after week.