The King of Pop is now the king of biopics in France. Since its release on April 22, Antoine Fuqua's film about Michael Jackson has surpassed 5,250,835 admissions, according to box office figures published on Wednesday, June 10, dethroning Olivier Dahan's La Vie en Rose (La Môme) — released in 2007, which attracted 5,242,769 viewers and earned Marion Cotillard the Oscar for Best Actress. Michael has thus become the most-watched biopic in French cinemas, with one significant caveat noted by Première magazine: if Lawrence of Arabia is considered a full-fledged biopic, David Lean's film, released in France in 1963 with 5,7 million admissions, would retain the absolute record.
$900 million worldwide, Bohemian Rhapsody in its sights
The performance is just as remarkable internationally. Michael has crossed the $900 million mark in worldwide box office receipts, according to the trade publication Deadline, and is seriously eyeing the crown held by Bohemian Rhapsody—the film about Freddie Mercury and Queen, currently the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time with $911 million. In France, the film opened with nearly 1,4 million viewers in its first week, marking the second-best opening of 2026. Despite spending six weeks at the top of the national charts, it has only dropped 7% in weekly attendance, a sign of a still-solid run. If it manages to maintain this momentum until the Fête du Cinéma (Cinema Festival), scheduled from June 28 to July 1, Michael could even surpass Lawrence of Arabia and seize the absolute record outright.
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