Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” tops $959.6M, closing on Oppenheimer’s $975.8M

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael is at $959.6 million worldwide as of Sunday (June 21), and it is closing in on Oppenheimer’s $975.8 million for the top-grossing biopic of all time. Meanwhile, the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody sits at $911 million. Translation: Michael is not just leading the “music biopic” race. It is inching toward the overall biopic throne, a category that includes massive non-music titles and tends to be harder to dethrone.

Why that matters is simple and immediate. If Michael reaches $975.8 million, it becomes the top-grossing biopic (not just the top-grossing musician biopic) of all time. Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s 2023 biopic of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, has grossed $975.8 million worldwide. Michael is “probably just a week away” from overtaking that number, based on the Box Office Mojo figures referenced in the report.

Now zoom in on what is powering the move. According to Box Office Mojo figures cited here, international ticket sales account for 61.7% of Michael’s worldwide box office total to date. The U.S. and Canada make up the remainder. That international mix is strong, and it helps explain how Michael can surge globally rather than rely only on domestic momentum.

Bohemian Rhapsody provides a useful comparison point. International ticket sales accounted for 76.2% of Bohemian Rhapsody’s worldwide box office total. In other words, Bohemian Rhapsody leaned even more heavily on overseas audiences. Michael’s international share is lower than Bohemian Rhapsody’s, but Michael’s absolute gross is still higher right now, which suggests it is capturing both broad global interest and enough domestic pull to keep accelerating.

The story behind the numbers is also about market fit, not just star power. The report points out that 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 January 1970. Bohemian Rhapsody and Michael both benefit from the same deep reservoir: both artists rose to fame in groups, The Jackson 5 and Queen respectively. They are also both widely seen as two of the greatest showmen of all time. Those traits matter because biopics are, in practice, a bet on translating cultural dominance into repeatable demand.

Then there is the shared biopic fuel most investors and operators recognize but often underwrite unconsciously: legacy plus time. The report notes that both superstars died years before their time. Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 of complications from AIDS. Jackson died in 2009 at age 50 of cardiac arrest caused by acute propofol intoxication. That timing intensifies audience attachment, and it helps explain why these stories keep re-landing with new generations, long after the original chart eras.

The two superstars also intersected. Jackson attended Queen concerts in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. They occasionally met for dinner and even recorded three demo tracks together that went unfinished. There is additional theatrical infrastructure behind the music brands as well. The Queen musical We Will Rock You opened on London’s West End in 2002. MJ: The Musical has been a fixture on Broadway since Dec. 6, 2021. In plain terms, these franchises did not start and end with the movies. They have kept audience awareness warm, which becomes a tailwind when a film lands.

Production and track record also sit in the background here. The report names Graham King as co-producer of Michael alongside longtime Jackson associates John Branca and John McClain (who died on May 26 at age 71). King also co-produced Bohemian Rhapsody and a third music biopic on Billboard’s list of music biopics, Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons. That continuity matters for decision-makers because it is a signal about how musical IP gets packaged and sold: recurring teams know how to translate music catalog value into cinematic events with international reach.

Finally, the report includes a curated list context for how Billboard is defining the ranking. It says the list includes the highest-grossing biopics of musicians in terms of worldwide box office. It also notes what was excluded, because those editorial rules can reveal what audiences are rewarding. The report says 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. Examples given include The Sound of Music (Maria von Trapp and the Trapp Family Singers), Green Book (road trip taken by pianist and composer Don Shirley), Florence Foster Jenkins (about an heiress and soprano), and Music of the Heart (about violinist and music educator Roberta Guaspari). It also notes Meryl Streep starred in the latter two films. The implication for operators is that star recognition and music-industry centrality appear to be doing more work than genre label alone.

For boards and exec teams deciding where to allocate attention and capital, the strategic takeaway is stark: a music biopic can climb toward the all-time biopic ceiling on a combination of legacy scale, international box office share, and franchise momentum across stage and screen. Michael’s distance to Oppenheimer’s $975.8 million is small enough that it functions as a live stress test for how fast audience demand can re-rate the category.