Michael Jackson's biopic "Michael" has passed $1 billion at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing music biopic ever, according to the entertainment data firm Luminate. The Lionsgate film stars Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson and covers the rise of the pop icon widely known as the King of Pop, and it's still playing in theaters as Luminate's July 15 analysis finds the box office run is now feeding a matching jump in how many people stream his catalog.
Luminate's numbers are specific. Jackson's U.S. on-demand audio streams jumped 143.6% in the week the film opened, from 49.9 million streams the week before to 121.6 million the week of release. Weekly streams kept climbing after that, peaking at 172 million two weeks after the premiere, a jump of 472.1% over the same week a year earlier, and had fallen off only 16% four weeks past that peak, according to the company's data.
Luminate is comparing those numbers to what happened after "Bohemian Rhapsody," the 2018 film about Queen that was, at the time, the highest-grossing music biopic ever made and went on to win Rami Malek the Best Actor Oscar in 2019. Queen's weekly streams sat around 10 million before that film, according to Luminate, and settled into the 20 million range afterward, a lasting lift rather than a brief spike, and the band closed a reported billion-dollar catalog deal with Sony Music in 2024 not long after.
Sony also holds a stake in Jackson's own catalog, having paid $600 million for part of it in 2024, before "Michael" reached theaters, and Luminate suggests the studio and the Jackson estate were likely hoping the film could do for his numbers what "Bohemian Rhapsody" did for Queen's. So far the streaming trend is tracking closely, with Jackson's opening-week jump actually outpacing the one Queen saw back in 2018.
Luminate cautions the comparison could still diverge. Queen's streaming numbers got a second boost when "Bohemian Rhapsody" swept the Oscars, and while Jaafar Jackson's performance has drawn some praise, "Michael" itself has landed largely negative reviews, making an acting nomination a long shot. Luminate also notes that Jackson's complicated public legacy could keep some potential listeners away even as the box office totals keep climbing.
The facts
- "Michael" is a Lionsgate biopic covering Michael Jackson's early life and rise, starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson
- Luminate calls it the highest-grossing music biopic of all time after it passed $1 billion at the global box office
- Jackson's US on-demand audio streams rose from 49.9 million to 121.6 million the week of the film's release
- Weekly streams peaked at 172 million two weeks later, up 472.1% year over year
- Sony bought a stake in Jackson's catalog for $600 million in 2024
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