Antoine Fuqua’s biopic Michael opened in cinemas around the world on Friday and finished its first weekend as the number-one film at the global box office, three days after its release on 24 April 2026.
The film is the first feature-length dramatisation of Michael Jackson’s life made with the cooperation of his estate. Jackson is played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson, the 28-year-old son of Jermaine Jackson, who reportedly trained for several years before filming.
The accompanying Michael: Songs from the Motion Picture soundtrack — a 13-track collection released by Columbia Records on the same day — spans Jackson’s career from the Jackson 5 through to the Bad era. It includes recordings from Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad, plus two live performances captured during his Jackson 5 years.
Family reaction
Taj Jackson, MJ’s nephew (one of the brothers in 3T) and an executive on the project, was among several family members posting publicly to mark the opening, sharing the worldwide result and thanking fans who turned out for the first weekend. Industry trackers including Discussing Film reported the worldwide number-one finish on Sunday.
What it means for the catalogue
The film’s release sits in the middle of one of the busiest years for the Jackson catalogue in recent memory: the soundtrack adds another posthumous Top-Ten contender, and back catalogue streaming has spiked sharply in the days following the premiere — a familiar pattern for any biopic but pronounced here given the size of the underlying audience.
For long-time fans, the film also re-opens the conversation about the way Jackson is now portrayed on screen — a question that has not been asked in this form since the 1992 made-for-TV miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream. We’ll be reviewing the film in full once we’ve seen it.