In a moonwalk for the box office history books, Antoine Fuqua’s record-smashing Michael Jackson biopic is returning to No. 1 in its fourth weekend with as much as $27 million domestically, only days after dancing past the $600 million mark globally. And last weekend, it became the top-grossing music biopic of all time ahead of Bohemian Rhapsody in North America, not adjusted for inflation.
Michael, from Lionsgate and producer Graham King, is benefiting from the failure of the video game adaptation Mortal Kombat II to turn into a crowd pleaser beyond its core fanbase.
Last weekend, almost all Imax screens went to New Line’s Mortal Kombat, but the martial arts sequel has underwhelmed and ceded much of its Imax footprint to Michael and a 20th anniversary celebration of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun franchise that includes screenings of both the first film and the more recent Top Gun: Maverick (the double billing is expected to earn an estimated $2.6 million).
David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 also continues to dominate even as it cedes first place to Michael domestically. And on Friday, the 20th Century and Disney sequel sashayed past the $500 million mark globally to become the top-grossing female-fueled pic since Barbie, not adjusted.
