Lionsgate’s Michael Outpaces Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love by Over 3X at the Box Office

The arrival of Michael (2026), the biopic about the life of Michael Jackson, has rewritten the rules for music biopics at the box office. With a staggering $97 million domestic opening weekend in the US, the film now stands as the biggest debut the genre has ever seen, leapfrogging every major music-driven biopic that came before it.

When compared to the most recent Hollywood music biopic, Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love (2024), Michael towers over it at the box office. While Bob Marley: One Love opened to $28.7 million domestically, Michael delivered a massive $97 million debut—a difference of $68.3 million.

Over the years there has been several debates about whether Bob Marley is a bigger name that Michael Jackson’s but as far as movie ticket sales goes, Michael earned over 3.3 times as much, outperforming the Marley biopic by approximately 238%.

Internationally Bob Marley: One Love grossed $180,971,146 over two months (February 14-April 25) while Michael grossed roughly $217.3 million worldwide with only its opening weekend sales. Bob Marley: One Love is now the fifth highest grossing music biopic of all time with a budget of $70 million. The budget for Lionsgate’s Michael was reportedly $150M.

Straight Outta Compton ranks at No. 2, with opening receipts of $60.2 million—about 62% of Michael, trailing by $36.8 million (−38%). Bohemian Rhapsody follows at No. 3 with a $51 million US opening, roughly 53% of Michael, or $46 million. Despite its trailing behind domestically, that film has an enormous worldwide total of over $910 million, the highest grossing music biopic worldwide earnings.

Further down the list, at No. 4 is Elvis which debuted with $31.2 million, about 32% of Michael.

The middle tier of music biopics shows a tight cluster of openings between $20 million and $27 million. All Eyez on Me brought in $26.4 million (27% of Michael), closely followed by Rocketman at $25.7 million (26.5%). Walk the Line opened with $22.4 million (23%), while Ray earned $20 million (20.6%).

Below them sits another tier of modest openers. I Can Only Imagine debuted with $17.1 million (17.6% of Michael), and Jersey Boys followed at $13.3 million (13.7%). A Complete Unknown ($11.7 million, 12.1%) and Selena ($11.6 million, 12%).

At the lower end of the chart are films that opened under $10 million. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere brought in $8.9 million (9.2% of Michael), while La Bamba earned $5.7 million (5.9%). I Wanna Dance with Somebody opened to $4.7 million (4.8%), followed by Coal Miner’s Daughter at $3.4 million (3.5%) and Judy at just $2.9 million, or about 3% of Michael’s opening.

Where a $50–60 million opening once represented a best-case scenario for a music biopic, the genre now has a new benchmark nearly double that level. The film’s performance suggests that, under the right conditions—global icon status, cross-generational appeal, and major studio backing—a biopic can now compete with blockbuster franchises rather than sit just outside them.