‘Michael’ Passes $500 Million Worldwide to Become Music Biopic No. 2 at the Box Office

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael has surged to $577.4 million worldwide in just its first three weeks, according to Box Office Mojo, and that puts it in a very small club. The film is now No. 2 on Billboard’s ranking of the highest-grossing music biopics worldwide, trailing only Bohemian Rhapsody.

That’s not a throwaway achievement. Jackson spent much of his career stacked up against records, starting all the way back in 1970 when The Jackson 5 scored their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Want You Back.” But this particular summit looks steep. Bohemian Rhapsody still sits on top with a worldwide total of $910.8 million, leaving $333.4 million between the two films. Michael pulled in $152.6 million over the past week alone, which is the kind of pace that keeps the question hanging in the air: can it actually chase down Freddie Mercury’s biopic? Place your bets.

One thing helping the numbers: the movie is playing especially well outside the U.S. and Canada. International markets account for 58.3% of its worldwide box office so far, while the domestic total makes up the remaining 41.7%.

There’s also a bit of connective tissue behind the scenes. Graham King, who co-produced Michael with longtime Jackson associates John Branca and John McClain, also co-produced Bohemian Rhapsody and Jersey Boys, another title that lands on Billboard’s list of the top music biopics worldwide.

The ranking itself focuses on biopics of actual music stars, which means a few huge titles are left off. Films like The Sound of Music, Green Book, Florence Foster Jenkins and Music of the Heart were excluded because their subjects, while undeniably musical, are not the kind of major pop, rock or country stars this list is tracking. Meryl Streep starred in both Florence Foster Jenkins and Music of the Heart.

Here’s how the 25 highest-grossing music biopics worldwide stack up.

The highest-grossing music biopics worldwide

Selena (1997)
Worldwide gross: $35.8 million
Director: Gregory Nava
Music: Dave Grusin
Notes: Jennifer Lopez starred as Tejano star Selena, whose rise took her from cult following to the Houston Astrodome before her shocking murder at 23 by former fan club president Yolanda Saldívar. The soundtrack reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200.

Shine (1996)
Worldwide gross: $36 million
Director: Scott Hicks
Music: David Hirschfelder
Notes: Geoffrey Rush won the Oscar for best actor as pianist David Helfgott, whose breakdown led to years spent in institutions. The film picked up seven Oscar nominations, including best picture, and the soundtrack reached No. 59 on the Billboard 200.

Funny Lady (1975)
Worldwide gross: $39 million
Director: Herbert Ross
Music: John Kander, Fred Ebb, Peter Matz
Notes: The sequel to Funny Girl wasn’t as celebrated, but it still found an audience. Barbra Streisand returned as Fanny Brice, with James Caan playing showman Billy Rose. It produced the Oscar-nominated song “How Lucky Can You Get,” and its soundtrack hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200.

What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993)

Image Credit: D. Stevens / ©Buena Vista Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Worldwide gross: $39.1 million
Director: Brian Gibson
Music: Stanley Clarke
Notes: Angela Bassett earned an Oscar nomination for best actress as Tina Turner, while Laurence Fishburne was nominated for best actor for playing Ike Turner. The title came from Turner’s 1984 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, which also won Grammys for record and song of the year. The soundtrack reached No. 17 on the Billboard 200 and produced the top 10 Hot 100 hit “I Don’t Wanna Fight.”

Notorious (2009)
Worldwide gross: $44.4 million
Director: George Tillman Jr.
Music: Danny Elfman
Notes: Jamal Woolard played Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G., who rose to the top of rap before being shot and killed at 24 in 1997. Angela Bassett, Derek Luke and Anthony Mackie also appeared. The soundtrack reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Worldwide gross: $45.2 million
Director: Scott Cooper
Music: Jeremiah Fraites
Notes: Jeremy Allen White, the Emmy-winning star of The Bear, plays Bruce Springsteen in a film centered on the stretch after The River, when Springsteen felt driven to make the low-key, acoustic Nebraska. Scott Cooper wrote and directed the film, adapting Warren Zanes’ 2023 book Deliver Me from Nowhere and drawing some material from Springsteen’s 2016 autobiography Born to Run. It also stars Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young. Reviews were mixed, though White and Strong drew praise. Fraites, co-founder of The Lumineers and a songwriter for the band, supervised the music. Like Springsteen, he was born and raised in New Jersey.

Judy (2019)
Worldwide gross: $46 million
Director: Rupert Goold
Music: Gabriel Yared
Notes: Renée Zellweger won the Oscar for best actress playing Judy Garland in the final year of Garland’s life, when she arrived in London in winter 1968 for a series of sold-out concerts. The irony, of course, is that Garland never won a competitive Oscar, despite two nominations, one in the same category. Zellweger was also nominated for a Grammy for the soundtrack in best traditional pop vocal album.

Funny Girl (1968)
Worldwide gross: $52.2 million
Director: William Wyler
Music: Jule Styne, Bob Merrill
Notes: Streisand won the Oscar for her film debut as Fanny Brice, the vaudeville star. “My Man” and “I’d Rather Be Blue” had already been hits for Brice in the 1920s, and Streisand’s best actress win, tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter, remains the only tie in the category’s history. “Hello, gorgeous,” she said in her speech before adding, “And I’m very honored to be in such magnificent company as Katharine Hepburn.” The film earned eight nominations, including best picture and best original song for “Funny Girl,” while the soundtrack reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for more than two years.

Amadeus (1984)
Worldwide gross: $52.3 million
Director: Miloš Forman
Notes: Tom Hulce was nominated for best actor as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but the Oscar went to F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri, the jealous rival with the flashier part. The film led the Oscars with 11 nominations and won eight, including best picture and best director for Forman. Peter Shaffer won best adapted screenplay for his version of the stage play that had taken home five Tony Awards in 1981. The double-disc soundtrack, credited to conductor and arranger Neville Marriner, reached No. 56 on the Billboard 200 and won a Grammy for best classical album.

La Bamba (1987)

Image Credit: © Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection
Worldwide gross: $54.2 million
Director: Luis Valdez
Music: Carlos Santana, Miles Goodman
Notes: Lou Diamond Phillips played Ritchie Valens, the Chicano rock star who died at 17 in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. The title comes from the Mexican folk song Valens transformed with his 1958 rock and roll version, which reached No. 22 on the Hot 100 in 1959. His biggest hit was actually “Donna,” which went to No. 2. The soundtrack, credited to Los Lobos, spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1987, and Los Lobos’ own “La Bamba” topped the Hot 100 for three weeks while earning Grammy nominations for record and song of the year.

All Eyez on Me (2017)
Worldwide gross: $55.7 million
Director: Benny Boom
Music: John Paesano
Notes: Demetrius Shipp Jr. portrayed Tupac Shakur, with Jamal Woolard back as Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace from Notorious. Shipp’s father had worked on music videos with 2Pac, who was shot and killed in 1996 at 25. The title comes from Shakur’s 1996 double album, his second to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022)
Worldwide gross: $59.8 million
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Music: Chanda Dancy
Notes: Naomi Ackie starred in the film, released 10 years after Houston’s death. Stanley Tucci played Clive Davis, who signed Houston to Arista Records in 1983 when she was 19 and helped guide her rise, even as he could not stop the collapse that followed. The title references Houston’s 1987 single, which Billboard ranked No. 1 on its 2023 list of The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List.

Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
Worldwide gross: $67.2 million
Director: Michael Apted
Music: Owen Bradley
Notes: Sissy Spacek won best actress playing Loretta Lynn in this country music biopic, which received seven Oscar nominations including best picture. Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo and Levon Helm appeared in supporting roles, while Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl made cameos as themselves. Based on George Vecsey’s 1976 biography of Lynn, it takes its title from Lynn’s signature hit, which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart in December 1970. The soundtrack reached No. 40 on the Billboard 200.

Jersey Boys (2014)
Worldwide gross: $67.6 million
Director: Clint Eastwood
Music: Bob Gaudio
Notes: Eastwood directed and co-produced the film version of the Broadway hit, which opened in 2005. John Lloyd Young played Frankie Valli, with Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio, Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi and Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito. The stage musical won four Tonys, including best musical and best actor in a musical for Young, but the film didn’t come close to matching that awards haul and missed out on any Oscar nominations. Valli and Gaudio were executive producers, and the soundtrack reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200.

I Can Only Imagine (2018)
Worldwide gross: $86.1 million
Directors: Andrew & Jon Erwin
Music: Brent McCorkle
Notes: Michael Finley starred as Bart Millard, the lead singer of the contemporary Christian band MercyMe. Millard wrote the title song about his relationship with his father, played by De…