'Michael' Hits Starz After Becoming the Highest-Grossing Biopic in History

The numbers are not subtle. 'Michael,' Lionsgate's sprawling portrait of Michael Jackson directed by Antoine Fuqua, is now on Starz, and it arrives there having done something no biography picture has ever managed before it.

According to reporting in Deadline and Variety, the film opened April 24 to $97.2 million domestic and $217 million worldwide, which was itself the best opening weekend ever for a musical biopic. It didn't slow down from there. By June it had passed 'Bohemian Rhapsody' as the highest-grossing music biopic ever, and by late June, according to Music Observer, it had cleared 'Oppenheimer' to become the highest-grossing biographical film in any genre. In July it crossed $1 billion globally, becoming only the second film of 2026 to reach that mark.

The theatrical run officially closed at $372.3 million domestic. International markets contributed $647.7 million, driven by what Music Observer described as strong performance in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. Then came a 108-day theatrical window before the Starz debut, a rollout Deadline noted was designed to wring maximum revenue from each release stage.

Since landing on the platform Aug. 10, the film has shot to No. 1 on Starz, unseating 'Power Book III: Raising Kanan' and 'Fightland' for the overall top spot, according to FlixPatrol data cited by CBR.

So what's the movie actually like? That's where things get more complicated, and more interesting. The critical reception, as Forbes noted, was mixed despite the audience stampede. 'Michael' earned an A- CinemaScore and a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, per Deadline, which means regular people loved it. Critics largely landed somewhere between respectful and skeptical, the usual biopic divide. Variety's Owen Gleiberman praised Jaafar Jackson, the King of Pop's nephew making his film debut, for capturing what he called 'the look, the voice, the electrostatic moves,' as well as 'the mixture of delicacy and steel that made Michael who he was.'

The film stops at the 'Bad' tour in the late 1980s, a structural choice that wasn't entirely artistic. The Hollywood Reporter previously revealed that the originally planned third act had to be scrapped because it dramatized a person who had a settlement with Jackson's estate barring their depiction. A sequel covering the rest of Jackson's career remains in development at Lionsgate, according to THR sources, and that second film will have to navigate the most contested chapters of Jackson's life without the crowd-pleasing runway of the early years.

Fuqua is working with a deep cast here. Colman Domingo plays Joe Jackson. Nia Long plays Katherine. Kat Graham is Diana Ross. Larenz Tate is Berry Gordy. Miles Teller appears as manager John Branca. But in every conversation about this film, the name that keeps coming up is Jaafar Jackson, a first-time actor dropped into one of the most scrutinized roles in recent Hollywood memory, playing his own uncle.

Whether the sequel can replicate the original's commercial trajectory is the real question now. The early life, the Jackson 5, the rise, the sheer infectious joy of that era in the music, those chapters are built for a biopic. What comes next is a harder story to tell. Lionsgate has bought itself a shot at it, though, and a billion reasons to try.

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/)
- Music Observer (https://musicobserver.com/michael-arrives-on-starz-after-becoming-the-first-biopic-to-cross-1-billion-at-the-global-box-office/)
- CBR (https://www.cbr.com/michael-jackson-biopic-starz-streaming-success-august-2026/)
- Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2026/07/27/michael-streaming-strategy-shifts-to-starz-after-crossing-1-billion-at-box-office/)
- 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/)