'Michael' Biopic Hits Starz After Crossing $1 Billion at the Box Office

The numbers were always going to be the story, and the numbers are genuinely staggering. 'Michael,' Lionsgate's long-delayed, heavily scrutinized biopic of the King of Pop, landed on Starz on August 10 carrying a worldwide gross of just over $1 billion, making it the highest-grossing biographical film in cinema history. According to a streaming announcement reviewed by Deadline, it is also Lionsgate's highest-grossing movie of all time, full stop.

To put that in context: it beat 'Oppenheimer.' It beat 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' Per Deadline, it opened on April 24 to $97.2 million domestically and $217 million worldwide, the best opening weekend ever for a musical biopic. It then stayed in theaters for 108 days before wrapping its domestic run at $372.3 million, per Forbes.

All of which means the conversation around 'Michael' has been almost entirely about audience enthusiasm versus critical hesitation. Variety's Owen Gleiberman praised Jaafar Jackson for capturing "the look, the voice, the electrostatic moves," and Rotten Tomatoes audience scores sat at 97%, per Deadline. Critics, though, have been more measured.

The film has a lot working in its favor beyond the Jackson name. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan, 'Michael' covers Jackson's life from his Gary, Indiana childhood through the Bad tour of the late 1980s. It does not go further, and there's a documented reason for that. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, the film's originally planned third act had to be retooled after it included a dramatization of an individual who had a past settlement with the Jackson estate stipulating he would never be depicted on screen.

That constraint actually sets up the sequel. Fuqua and Logan stop the clock right before 'Thriller,' right before the full global phenomenon, right before the controversies that defined the final decades of Jackson's life. Lionsgate is actively planning a second film, with Forbes reporting that 'Michael 2' could begin production in late 2026 or early 2027, potentially using footage already shot for the first installment.

At the center of all of it is Jaafar Jackson, the late pop star's nephew, who makes his feature debut here. He's never acted professionally before this film, and the performance has drawn real attention. Per Variety, critics noted the physical transformation and argued it went deeper than imitation. That's the rare thing a biopic needs to justify itself: a performance that earns its subject rather than just impersonating them.

The Starz premiere also follows a PVOD run that began June 9, so a large portion of the audience has already seen it at home once. What the streaming window does now is bring it into the subscription ecosystem, where it'll sit alongside the rest of a pretty busy August slate. Whether a second viewing holds up is the real question. Biopics that run on spectacle and nostalgia don't always survive the living-room rewatch. But given that audiences went back to theaters multiple times this spring, Lionsgate's bet on a sequel doesn't look reckless. It looks, at this moment, like the safest sequel bet in Hollywood.

Sources cited:
- Deadline (https://deadline.com/2026/07/michael-streaming-date-1237004628/)
- Variety (https://variety.com/2026/film/news/michael-streaming-release-date-michael-jackson-starz-1236757504/)
- Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2026/08/08/michael-streaming-shifts-to-starz-this-week-as-sequel-filming-nears/)
- The Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/michael-jackson-biopic-spring-2026-release-1236327611)
- TheGrio (https://thegrio.com/2026/07/29/michael-jackson-biopic-streaming-date-starz/)