Michael Crossed 1 Billion at the Box Office
The musical biopic has finally broke the ultimate milestone. Let's dive in!
With 372 million domestically and 630 million overseas, Michael has finally crossed the 1 billion!! This is simply incredible. This is now officially the first biopic movie to cross that milestone. It passed both Oppenheimer (976 million) and Bohemian Rhapsody (911 million). It’s also the first Lionsgate film to cross that milestone, which is pretty impressive (Lionsgate highest grossing movie until now was The Hunger Games: Catching Fire).
I must say, this movie really shows the power of word-of-mouth.
The critics’ reviews are pretty bad (38% on Rotten Tomatoes, 39 on Metacritic), but audiences really love this movie (“A-“ at CinemaScore). For most people, this is a must-see cinema experience, like going to a show. In fact, when I got out of the press screening, I told people around me “This movie is going to be huge because it’s a real crowd-pleaser!”. Sometimes, all the audience wants is a great theater experience, and that’s exactly what Michael did.
This is not unlike the live-action version of Aladdin from 2019. It opened with 212 million globally, and received mixed reviews from critics (57% on Rotten Tomatoes, 53 on Metacritic) but positive audience reviews (“A” on CinemaScore. Eventually, the movie surprised everyone when it had small drops, and in the end, it was able to cross the 1 billion, all thanks to stellar word-of-mouth.
I wonder how Michael 2 will perform. If it will be a courtroom drama, we might have a drop on par with Joker: Folie à Deux, which will be a disaster. So, they need to show tons of the other songs, and make them exciting and captivating like in the first movie. Maybe they should make sure that the budget will be closer to 100 million than 200 million this time, just in case.
Lionsgate is on a roll recently: Now You See Me 3 has grossed over 240 million, The Housemaid crushed everyone with 400 million, Michael just became their first movie to join the billion club ,and of course, a new Hunger Games movie is coming this November, and the buzz is huge - this movie can cross 500 million, and maybe even more.
I have some prediction about Lionsgate future: a) They will give us new about Michael 2 soon. b) They are planning another Hunger Games movie (with the author Suzanne Collins) 3) A new Divergent installment will be announced – most likely a TV reboot.
No matter what, this is a major win for Lionsgate - kudos to everyone involved!
