Moviegoers across the D.C. region helped propel “Michael” to another milestone, as the Michael Jackson biopic surpassed Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” (2023) to become the highest-grossing biographical film in history.
The film has earned $977.4 million worldwide after 10 weekends in theaters, cementing its place as the highest-grossing biopic ever made.
Brendan Mack, who attended a showing in the District, described an audience that reacted less like movie patrons and more like concertgoers.
“This movie was more like a concert, one that I never got to see,” Mack said. “I see why it’s the biggest-grossing biopic, and of course, it’s Michael Jackson.”
Fans leaving theaters from downtown Washington to suburban Maryland are already talking about returning for a second viewing and hoping the story continues in a sequel.
When attorney John Branca, co-executor of Jackson’s estate, spoke with The Informer recently, he said the possibility of continuing the story had long been part of the conversation.
“It was always our hope to have the first biopic with a sequel,” Branca told The Informer.
Branca cautioned that nothing has been officially announced. Still, people familiar with the production say interest in another installment is strong, with discussions centering on Jackson’s later years, including the “Dangerous” era, the 1993 Super Bowl halftime performance, his marriages, relentless media scrutiny and the extraordinary demands that accompanied worldwide fame.
“But there is clearly more story to be told,” a studio source added.
The box office numbers suggest audiences agree. “Michael” had already become the highest-grossing musical biopic after surpassing “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018). It now sits atop all biographical films worldwide and is widely expected to become only the second film released in 2026 to cross the $1 billion mark.
For many Washington-area viewers, the film’s success comes as little surprise.
Similarly to Mack, Alethea Brooks, 44, watching “Michael” alongside her children and mother, said many audience members couldn’t resist singing along with Jackson’s biggest hits.
She laughed as she recalled repeatedly whispering to her mother, “Mom, this is not a concert.”
“He was a superstar, a superstar to superstars,” she said of Jackson. “I certainly see why it’ll pass $1 billion. It just proves that there will never again be another King of Pop. It’s impossible that we will experience another Michael Jackson.”
A Potential Sequel?
Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the title role, “Michael” traces the entertainer’s rise from his childhood with the Jackson 5 through his emergence as the King of Pop. Colman Domingo and Nia Long portray Joe and Katherine Jackson.
Should Lionsgate move forward with another film, there would be no shortage of material. The first installment concludes before many defining chapters of Jackson’s adult life, leaving untouched the record-setting Dangerous World Tour, the Super Bowl performance watched by more than 130 million viewers, his humanitarian work, fatherhood and the final decades of a career that remained one of the most scrutinized in modern entertainment.
“I’m looking forward to the second movie that we all know is coming,” Brooks said.
For now, neither Branca nor the studio has confirmed a sequel. The box office, however, has delivered a powerful argument that audiences are not finished with Michael Jackson’s story.
Jeffrey Jacobs, who saw “Michael” at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring, said the production captured the scale and excitement that made Jackson one of the world’s biggest entertainers.
“Showing the Victory Tour, ‘BAD’ and Pepsi commercial brought back so many memories and Jaafar doesn’t come across as being a Michael impersonator like so many people often do when they try to dance like Michael or portray him,” Jacobs said.
