Michael Becomes the Second Music Biopic to Cross $500 Million Worldwide

Michael has already climbed to No. 2 on Billboard’s ranking of the highest-grossing music biopics worldwide, after pulling in $577.4 million in just three weeks, according to Box Office Mojo. That puts the Michael Jackson film in rare company, and for now only one title sits out of reach: Bohemian Rhapsody, which finished its run at $910.8 million.

The speed of Michael’s commercial rise is hard to miss. International markets account for 58.3% of its total so far, with the U.S. and Canada responsible for the remaining 41.7%, a split that says plenty about how global Jackson’s audience still is. The film added $152.6 million in the past week alone, which at least keeps the conversation alive about whether it can meaningfully narrow the $333.4 million gap between itself and the Freddie Mercury biopic. Whether that is enough is another matter. Pace matters, and box office history tends to punish optimism.

There is also a familiar hand behind the numbers. Graham King, who co-produced Michael with longtime Jackson associates John Branca and John McClain, was also involved in Bohemian Rhapsody and Jersey Boys, another of the biggest music biopics on the list. That overlap matters. The business of music biopics has become its own small industrial lane in Hollywood, one built on recognizable names, durable catalogs and the promise that old fame can still be repackaged into new ticket sales.

Billboard’s list, though, makes clear that the genre is broader than the usual arena-legend story. The highest earners cover rap, classical, country, Latin and contemporary Christian music, and they don’t all play by the same rules. Some are prestige vehicles, some are legacy projects, some are straight crowd-pleasers. A few aren’t even included here, despite their box office strength, because their subjects are not major music stars in the first place. That means films like The Sound of Music, Green Book, Florence Foster Jenkins and Music of the Heart are left out of this particular count, even if their relationship to music history is obvious enough.

Here is the list of the 25 music-star biopics with the highest worldwide grosses.

The highest-grossing music biopics worldwide

Selena (1997)

Worldwide gross: $35.8 million

Director: Gregory Nava

Music: Dave Grusin

Notes: Jennifer Lopez, still a rising star at the time, played Tejano singer Selena, who moved from cult favorite status to filling 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 best actor Oscar for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott, whose mental breakdown led to years in institutions. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture. Its soundtrack peaked at 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 1968’s Funny Girl was less celebrated but still commercially durable. Barbra Streisand returned as Fanny Brice, with James Caan as Billy Rose. It yielded the Oscar-nominated song “How Lucky Can You Get,” and the soundtrack reached 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 playing Tina Turner, with Laurence Fishburne also nominated for portraying Ike Turner. The title came from Turner’s 1984 hit, which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 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 climbed to 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, best known for The Bear, stars as Bruce Springsteen in a film centered on the period after The River, when Springsteen made the low-key acoustic album Nebraska. Written and directed by Scott Cooper, it adapts Warren Zanes’ 2023 book Deliver Me from Nowhere and includes some material from Springsteen’s 2016 autobiography Born to Run. Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young also star. Reviews were mixed, though White and Strong drew praise. Fraites, who co-founded The Lumineers and writes 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 best actress for playing Judy Garland in a film that focused on the final year of her life, when she arrived in London in winter 1968 for a run of sold-out concerts. Garland never won a competitive Oscar, despite two nominations, including in the same category that Zellweger won. Zellweger was later 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 an Oscar for her film debut as Fanny Brice, a vaudeville-era star whose songs “My Man” and “I’d Rather Be Blue” had already been hits in the 1920s. She tied Katharine Hepburn for best actress, still the only tie in that category, and opened her speech with, “Hello, gorgeous,” before adding, “And I’m very honored to be in such magnificent company as Katharine Hepburn.” The film received eight Oscar nominations, including best picture and best original song for “Funny Girl.” Its 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 for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri, the jealous rival framing the story. The film earned 11 Oscar nominations and won eight, including best picture and best director for Forman. Peter Shaffer won best adapted screenplay for the film version of his stage play, which had taken five Tony Awards in 1981. The 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 starred as Ritchie Valens, the Chicano rock figure who died at 17 in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. The title comes from the Mexican folk song Valens reworked into a rock and roll hit in 1958. His version reached No. 22 on the Hot 100 in 1959, though “Donna” was the bigger hit at No. 2. The soundtrack, credited to Los Lobos, spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1987, and Los Lobos’ version of “La Bamba” held the Hot 100 top spot 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 returning 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 film takes its title from Shakur’s 1996 double album, his second to top 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 shepherd her rise even if he could not stop the eventual collapse. The title came from Houston’s 1987 single, which Billboard named the No. 1 song on its 2023 list of The 500 Best Pop Songs.

Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

Worldwide gross: $67.2 million

Director: Michael Apted

Music: Owen Bradley

Notes: Sissy Spacek won best actress for playing Loretta Lynn in a film that earned seven Oscar nominations, including best picture. Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo and Levon Helm had supporting roles, while Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl appeared as themselves. The film adapted George Vecsey’s 1976 biography of Lynn, which shared its title with Lynn’s signature hit, a 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 this film version of the stage musical that opened on Broadway in 2005. It told the Four Seasons story with John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio, Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi and Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito. The stage show had won four Tony Awards, including best musical and best actor in a musical for Young, but the film received none of that awards momentum and did not land an Oscar nomination. Valli and Gaudio were executive producers. 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 played Bart Millard, the lead singer of the contemporary Christian band MercyMe. Millard wrote the title track about his relationship with his father, who was played by De