Back in 2022, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll had one of the most successful music biopics ever. This year, the King of Pop is poised to have the most successful one ever, at least on the domestic side. Both certainly had their issues (as films and as men), but now, audiences are dancing in the aisles and critics have been receiving their own criticism for not having the same opinion as fans. Let’s take a look at all the numbers and see what all the fuss is about.
King of the Crop: Michael Thrills with Biggest Opening Ever for Musical Biopic
The biggest openers ever for musician biopics have included Straight Outta Compton ($60.2 million), Bohemian Rhapsody ($51.0 million) and Elvis ($31.2 million). Antoine Fuqua’s Michael just blew them out of the water with $97 million; the eighth-highest April opening ever and Lionsgate’s sixth best. (Four of their top five are the Jennifer Lawrence Hunger Games films and the fifth is the final Twilight.) But not only is that a better number than the combined starts of the recent Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and Back to Black, Michael nearly doubled those three films together entirely ($52.5 million). Granted, another area where this film has a higher number than all those films combined is the budget.
Originally reported at a cost of $150 million, that number went up at least another $15-20 million (some reports are as high as $200 million total) with the reshoots that forced the production to remove any mention of the sexual accusations and legal issues that followed Michael Jackson after the film, in its current incarnation, ends. That is a lot riding on the international success of the film. Producer Graham King certainly banked that with Bohemian Rhapsody, which grossed over $687 million just on the global stage; domestic tallies put it over $903 million total. So far, Michael is up to $217 million worldwide, and it may need to get as high as $500 million just to break even. After Rhapsody, the second-highest grossing music biopic across the globe is still Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis with $288 million for the time being. Now we keep our eyes on the King of Pop to see if his future is bad, a thriller, or even off the wall.
Tales of the top 10: Mario and Project Hail Mary Continue to Fly High
Mario Bros., the original video game, came out roughly four months after the release of Jackson’s album, Thriller. 43 years later The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is knocked out of its three-week perch at No. 1 by the biopic. These brothers are doing just fine, though, with $21.2 million in weekend four to bring their 26-day total to $386.4 million. That is slightly ahead of last year’s A Minecraft Movie, which was at $382.5 million after a $22.7 million fourth-go. That is keeping its domestic estimate in the $425-435 million range. Worldwide, the film has surpassed $831 million. Add another $40-50 million to date, and its going to take another $120+ million on the international side for it to become the first billion dollar film of the year.
Project Hail Mary continues to put up notable numbers. After a mere 15% drop last week and becoming just the 12th film to put up $20+ million in a fifth weekend, the Lord/Miller film fell 35.7% down to a still robust $13.2 million. That put it over $300 million domestic, and it is outpacing both 2019’s Aladdin and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. Each of those films grossed just over $10 million in their sixth weekends and finished with $355.5 million and $337.1 million, respectively. Hail Mary likely falls somewhere in between, but it could get closer to Aladdin, maybe even surpass it if its drops get back to the 20% region. Globally the film is over $613 million, the second to already hit that milestone this year. Only eight Hollywood releases did so in 2025.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy fell just one place this week but took a much bigger tumble behind the dollar signs, falling 58.6% to $5.6 million. That puts its 10-day total at $23.4 million. Looking at other April horror releases, Mike Flanagan’s Oculus lands just behind it at $21.1 million after a $5.1 million second weekend, while Unfriended leads it by just a little with $25 million after a $6.1 million second weekend. So a final domestic gross around $30 million seems to be in the cards for The Mummy. The film is already over $65 million worldwide and is a success for Warner Bros. and the Jason Blum/James Wan partnership.
A24’s release of The Drama made $2.6 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to $44.8 million to pass Hereditary on their all-time chart. If you’re looking for another statistic, how about it being their fifth-best fourth weekend of wide release ever? A24 also expanded Mother Mary wider this weekend, and it was enough to get it into the top 10. The psychological horror film from David Lowery with Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel grossed $1.25 million for a total of $1.49 million, just one week before another fashion-centric Hathaway film is poised to lead the box office.
For the second time this month, I thought IFC could get headlines for having their biggest opening ever. A couple weeks back, Faces of Death opened to $1.64 million, which ended up being their fourth best ever. This week, Over Your Dead Body, Jorma Taccone’s remake of Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 film The Trip, now with Jason Segel and Samara Weaving as the spouses looking to off one another, opened to just less with $1.5 million, ranking it sixth on their all-time opener list after Dangerous Animals last June began with $1.56 million. Neither were able to best their 2024 release of Late Night with the Devil with David Dastmalchian, which started with $2.83 million. Magnolia pulled off their best opening of all-time last week with Bob Odenkirk in Ben Wheatley’s Normal ($2.55 million) which fell out of the top 10 quickly this week. Congrats to the indies taking their shot with releases in over 1,500 theaters. What’s it going to take for them to put more butts in those theaters, though?
Speaking of indies, Roadside Attractions just had its highest-grossing film since the pandemic in A Great Awakening, now with over $7.5 million. Its their highest-grossing film since 2019’s Oscar-winning Judy made almost $24 million. This week they just missed the top 10 with David MacKenzie’s Fuze starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, and Sam Worthington. It opened to $1.01 million in 1,164 theaters for their seventh-biggest launch ever. (A Great Awakening opened in 1,289 theaters.) Last year’s Kiss of the Spider Woman musical redux with Jennifer Lopez was their third-biggest ever in 1,331 theaters, and it opened to just $891,046 and grossed a total of $1.62 million. They missed out, thanks to IndieFilms’ release of American Youngboy, the concert film featuring NBA Youngboy, which ended up making $1.19 million in 583 theaters.
Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers is the first film of 2026 to have a stay in the top 10 for eight straight weeks. GOAT fell out with seven, but Hoppers hangs in there with $1.9 million to bring its domestic total to $164.1 million and over $370 million globally, making it the third-highest grossing Hollywood film of the year to date. You, Me & Tuscany added $1.5 million in its third weekend to bring its total to $17.6 million. Kat Coiro’s previous film, the day-and-date theatrical/streaming release of Marry Me with Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, had made $20.2 million in its first 17 days after a $1.88 million third weekend.
In other news, Sony Classics’ BAFTA-winning I Swear grossed $640,000 in 645 theaters.Vertical Entertainment’s release of Rupert Wyatt’s Desert Warrior with Anthony Mackie, which began filming in 2021, grossed $472,111 in 1,010 theaters. The rub is the film reportedly cost $150 million with the Saudi Arabian film industry. Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers fell to 295 theaters this weekend, and the Neon release grossed $332,850 to bring its total to $1.3 million. Finally, 20th Century Studios’ re-release of Fight Club made $219,000 over the weekend and has made $804,789 since Wednesday.
On the Vine: Will Miranda Priestly Steal Michael’s Thunder?
The summer movie season kicks off next week, not with the usual big budget, high-concept VFX Marvel film, but still a Disney film, now that they control 20th Century Studios. Expect some big numbers for The Devil Wears Prada 2 with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci all returning. Neon has the horror film Hokum with Adam Scott, from the director of Oddity, which has a solid 97% with critics after its premiere at SXSW. Also look for Andy Serkis’ animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm from Angel Studios.
Full List of Box Office Results: April 24-26, 2026
- Michael – $97.0 million ($97.0 million total)
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – $21.2 million ($386.4 million total)
- Project Hail Mary – $13.2 million ($305.4 million total)
- Lee Cronin’s The Mummy – $5.6 million ($23.4 million total)
- The Drama – $2.6 million ($44.8 million total)
- Hoppers – $1.9 million ($164.1 million total)
- You, Me & Tuscany – $1.5 million ($17.6 million total)
- Over Your Dead Body – $1.43 million ($1.43 million total)
- Mother Mary – $1.25 million ($1.49 million total)
- American Youngboy – $1.19 million ($1.19 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Lionsgate
