‘Michael’ moonwalks to UK-Ireland box office summit with £8.4m opening weekend, the biggest ever for a music biopic

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Michael Jackson biopic Michael dominated the UK-Ireland box office chart on its opening weekend, with a strong £8.4m start.

The Universal title took a huge £12,039 average from 709 locations. Having opened on Wednesday, April 22, it is up to £11.5m already.

Any of Michael’s three individual days across the weekend would’ve been comfortably sufficient to top the weekend chart, with a £3.3m Saturday as the peak. It is an impressive opening performance in the context of warm weather across much of the weekend. The film’s top UK-Ireland site was the single screen at the BFI Imax in London.

The £8.4m three-day opening is the second biggest opening of the year, behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie  (£9.4m) earlier this month.

It is also the biggest opening ever for a music biopic, ahead of titles including Bohemian Rhapsody  (£6.4m), Rocketman (£4m), Elvis  (£4m), A Complete Unknown  (£2.6m) and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody  (£1.4m).

The film accounted for 68% of the total UK-Ireland box office this weekend.

It was a Universal one-two this weekend, with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie adding £1.1m to hit £34.4m from four sessions, with a 57% drop. It is 27% down on the £47.2m of 2023 predecessor The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the same stage, but is still the highest-grossing release of 2026 to date, and has passed the totals of The LEGO Movie  (a lower £34.4m) and Mufasa: The Lion King (£33.5m).

Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary added £834,109 on its sixth weekend in cinemas – a 50% drop that brought it to £31.9m total, ahead of films including Slumdog Millionaire  (£31.6m) and Gladiator  (£31.3m). It is the highest-grossing Amazon MGM Studios title ever in the territory, with Sony handling distribution.

Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama suffered the biggest drop of its four-week run to date, falling 58% for Entertainment Film Distributors, but still posted a decent £503,310. The wedding drama is up to £9.2m, and should cross the £10m mark in the next fortnight.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy added £358,678 on its second weekend – a 63% drop that brought it to £1.8m total for Warner Bros.

Michael boosted takings for the top five up 54% on last weekend to 11.2m, with the figures also up a strong 38% on the equivalent weekend from last year. The top five titles have cumulatively topped £10m on three out of four weekends in April, in what seems to be a decent month for the box office. Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 will be the main competitor to Michael’s second weekend, opening on Friday, May 1.

Rose blooms for BFI

Entertainment Film Distributors’ The Magic Faraway Tree has grown to £13.9m total, after a 61% drop on its fifth session saw it bring in £336,329.

Genki Kawamura’s Japanese action horror Exit 8 started with £112,965 for Vertigo Releasing, from 215 sites at a £525 location average. Including previews, the film has £140,243.

Mark Jenkin’s Rose Of Nevada starring George MacKay and Callum Turner opened to £109,471 for BFI Distribution – the biggest opening for a film by Jenkin to date, ahead of Bait  (£48,044) and Enys Men  (£70,002). Rose Of Nevada has £171,943 in total; it is chasing down the £540,818 of 2019’s Bait as Jenkin’s highest-grossing film.

A 4K restoration of David Fincher’s Fight Club was the highest-grossing Disney title this weekend, taking £97,779. The cult classic brought in £5.7m on its original 1999 release, with additional box office through subsequent releases since then.

Trafalgar Releasing’s event cinema opera title The Magic Flute took £86,000 at the weekend; and has £440,000 in total, having started its run on Tuesday, April 21.

Bhooth Bangla was the highest-grossing Asian film in cinemas this weekend, with £82,374 for Bakrania Media – a 56% drop across its second weekend. The comedy-horror is up to £370,879 total.

Having broken into the top five last time out, Anime Ltd’s re-release of anime classic Akira added £78,568 on its second session, and has brought in a strong £1.2m total.

David Lowery’s Mother Mary starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel opened to £64,108, from 177 cinemas at a £363 location average for A24. The film has £64,227 including previews.

Disney animation Hoppers added £57,552 on its eighth weekend in cinemas, and is just shy of £14m in total, just behind The Wild Robot  (£14.1m) from 2024.

Independent US-Canadian animation Time Hoppers: The Silk Road added £32,591 for Miracle Comms, and is up to £263,150 from two sessions.

UK-US animation Hitpig! started with £32,390 for Kazoo Films, from 440 sites at a £74 site average.

Brian Cox’s directorial debut Glenrothan dropped sharply on its second weekend, with an 81% fall to £29,545 leaving it on £344,694 total for Lionsgate.

Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time in the UK & Ireland. It added £24,630 on its sixth weekend in cinemas through Moviegoers Entertainment, and is up to £4.42m, ahead of the £4.38m of 2023’s Pathaan.

Damiano Michieletto’s music biopic Primavera, about a violinist under the tutelage of Vivaldi, started with £23,652 for Curzon, from 48 sites at a £493 average. The Toronto 2025 premiere has £41,622 including previews.

Francois Ozon’s black and white The Stranger kept playing through a third weekend for Curzon, adding £22,262 to hit £311,756 total – Ozon’s highest-grossing film since the £847,797 of In The House in 2013.

Universal romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany dropped 81% on its third weekend with £22,199, and is up to £734,465.

National Theatre Live’s release of filmed play All My Sons starring Bryan Cranston added £17,496 on a second weekend in cinemas, and is up to £742,834.

Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion winner Father Mother Sister Brother topped up by £17,013 on its third weekend for Mubi, taking it to a £295,167 total.

James McAvoy’s directorial debut California Schemin’ was Studiocanal’s highest-grossing film this weekend, taking £15,365 on its third session and reaching a £479,861 total.

Scottish Highlands walking documentary The North took £14,718 at the weekend for Tull Stories, from 49 sites at a £300 site average. Bart Schrijver’s film has £31,682 including previews.

Vue Lumière’s children’s anthology Bluey At The Cinema: Playdates With Friends put on £10,163 on its fifth weekend in cinemas, and has £647,252 in total, not far behind the £680,326 of last year’s Bluey title Let’s Play Chef Collection.

On its third weekend in cinemas, Sundance horror Undertone added £8,585 for Vertigo Releasing, and is up to £561,091 total.

David Mackenzie’s UK action drama Fuze added £6,428 on its fourth weekend for Studiocanal, and has reached £700,170 total.

Slasher sequel Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come added £6,167 on its sixth weekend in cinemas, and is up to £2.1m total for Disney, having passed the £2m of the first film a couple of weekends ago.

On the fourth weekend of its re-release through Curzon, Amélie brought in £5,689 to hit £270,797 total; in addition to the £5m from the film’s original 2001 run.\

Thea Gajic’s UK independent title Surviving Earth opened to £4,966 for Metis Films, from 15 sites at a £331 average. Including previews, the BFI- and Film4-backed film is up to £13,079.

Colleen Hoover adaptation Reminders Of Him put on £4,804 on its seventh session for Universal, and is up to £4.5m total – well down on the £21.9m of 2024’s It Ends With Us, but closer to the £6.2m of last year’s Regretting You.

Yuen Woo-Ping’s Chinese action adventure Blades Of The Guardians: Wind Rises In The Desert added £3,412 on its second weekend for Trinity CineAsia, and is up to £49,696.

Ragnhild Ekner’s football fans documentary Ultras took £1,400 from one screening each at four sites from Thursday to Saturday, for Bulldog Film Distribution.

A single screening at London’s Genesis Cinema of Pablo Behrens’s documentary London’s Last Wilderness took £477 for Miracle Comms.

• Michael tops global box office chart with record-breaking $217m opening