‘Michael' vs ‘Bohemian Rhapsody': Reviews, Box Office and Oscars
Michael, the big-budget Michael Jackson biopic, has moonwalked its way to the biggest opening of all time in its genre.
The film-which stars Michael Jackson's real-life nephew, Jaafar Jackson, the son of his older brother Jermaine Jackson and was co-produced by the Jackson estate-opened with $217 million worldwide and $97 million domestically.
The box office success follows largely negative reviews from critics, and continued discourse about the film's central figure.
Michael is the latest in a series of high-profile biopics centering on famous musicians in recent years. In 2025, Deliver Me From Nowhere, focusing on the life of Bruce Springsteen, was released. It followed A Complete Unknown, about the life of Bob Dylan in 2024; and 2022’s Elvis, about the life of Elvis Presley.
Michael has been compared to an earlier biopic, though, Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 film about the Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, particularly as both films were produced by Graham King. From the reviews to the box office performance, this is how the two films compare.
How the ‘Michael’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Reviews Compare
Both Michael and Bohemian Rhapsodyopened to mixed reviews.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Michael has a 38 percent score from critics and a 97 percent score from audiences. On IMDb, the film has a 7.7 rating out of 10, and a generally unfavorable score of 39/100 on Metacritic.
The BBC described the film as “bland and barely competent,” in a one star review, while Kyle Smith wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “Even more so than most great artists, Michael Jackson was a horrible human being. The splashy biopic on his life until 1988, ‘Michael,’ deals with this problem by ignoring it.”
Michael has been criticized for glossing over some of the more difficult aspects of the Michael Jackson story. The King of Pop biopic follows the journey from the early days of the Jackson 5 to becoming one of the biggest entertainers in the world. The film ends in 1988, around the era of the Bad world tour.
The film, though, ends years before multiple child sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson emerged. By the time of his death at the age of 50 in 2009, his reputation had been severely tarnished by these allegations, which were further cemented in the public consciousness after the release of the documentary Leaving Neverland in 2019, which featured interviews with two men who alleged that Jackson had routinely abused them as boys.
Jackson and his estate have always maintained his innocence.
Bohemian Rhapsody has an overall stronger critical rating-a 60 percent score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 85 percent from audiences a 49 percent mixed score on Metacritic and an IMDb rating of 7.9.
However, there are parallels between criticism leveled at Michael and at Bohemian Rhapsody, with a consistent criticism that both films glossed over more complex aspects of their subjects' lives.
For Mercury, critics felt the complexity of his sexuality was missed. “It’s a bit glossy when it comes to the darker moments in [Freddie Mercury’s] life,” Victoria Luxford said in a three-star review for the BBC at the time, while Richard Roeper wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, “The only redeeming value of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is it’s so bad, there’s plenty of room left for a much better biopic about the one and only Freddie Mercury.”
How ‘Michael’ Compares With ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the Box Office
Michael has outperformed Bohemian Rhapsody, eclipsing the 2018 film to rank as the top worldwide opening for a musical biopic.
Bohemian Rhapsody opened with $124 million worldwide in 2018, $93 million less than Michael.
Michael also surpassed Bohemian Rhapsody's domestic opening, which had previously set a record in 2018 for a biopic, with $51 million.
Bohemian Rhapsody ultimately became a huge blockbuster, with $910 million by the end of its theatrical run, and how Michael will fare by the end of its run remains to be seen. It is yet to open in Japan, where there is a large audience of Michael Jackson fans.
And the appetite for a film about Michael Jackson was already well established. Michael Jackson's This Is It, released in 2009, remains the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, more than 15 years after its release.
The film followed the singer preparing for a planned concert residency, which was ultimately canceled after his death in 2009.
That film earned $200 million against a budget of $155 million.
How Michael Could Compare to Bohemian Rhapsody at the Oscars
Bohemian Rhapsody won four awards at the 91st Academy Awards in 2019, more than any other film that year.
Rami Malek won Best Actor for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury. It also won awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing.
The film lost out on the award for Best Picture, which went to Green Book. That was the only category for which the film was nominated, but did not win.
With 2026 less than halfway complete, it is still early for 2027 Oscar predictions. That said, it could pick up some nominations. Early reporting from Variety indicates that Colman Domingo will likely be nominated for his portrayal of Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson's father. Variety's predictions also indicates that Jaafar Jackson could also scoop a nomination for Best Actor, but he is not among the favorites for the category at this time.
Music biopics have previously done well with the academy. Baz Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis and James Mangold's 2024 A Complete Unknown both earned eight Oscar nominations.
Michael could be less likely to earn a nomination in the Best Picture category. Variety's predictions do not include it in their list of likely entries, while early betting on Polymarket favors the upcoming Christopher Nolan film The Odyssey as the title to earn the most nominations, followed by Dune: Messiah and Project Hail Mary.
Nominations for the 99th Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, January 21, 2027. The Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 14.
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