"Michael" key art featuring Jaafar Jackson.
Lionsgate
The Michael Jackson biopic Michael isn’t the only film this year that’s making a mint at the box office despite being torn apart by critics. Does the name Mario ring a bell?
Starring the late King of Pop’s nephew/Jermaine Jackson’s son, Jaafar Jackson, in the title role, Michael defied scathing reviews to make $97 million — of its worldwide tally of $217 million — from North American theaters in its opening weekend, April 24-26.
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Even more impressive, the biopic, which chronicles Jackson’s life from age 10 through 1988, blew past pre-opening box office projections by about $30 million.
While The Devil Wears Prada 2 is poised to win the box office crown this weekend, Michael is proving that it’s not a one-hit wonder with moviegoers. According to projections by Deadline, Michael is poised to earn $51 million in its second weekend at the North American box office, which is a 48% drop in ticket sales from its opening three-day frame.
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Should the projection hold, it will boost Michael’s 10-day domestic box office take to $180.8 million. In addition, Deadline projects that Michael’s international sales will increase to $232.5 million over the weekend, which, combined with the film’s estimated domestic take, will boost its 10-day worldwide box office to $413.3 million.
In short, Michael is only one of two blockbuster movies this year to show that when it comes to reviews and ticket sales, the critics simply don’t matter. To date, the film’s Tomatometer critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is a “rotten” 38%. RT’s Popcornmeter score for Michael, however, is 97% “fresh” based on 10,000-plus verified user ratings.
Proving that Rotten Tomatoes’ “rotten” critics’ score isn’t an anomaly, the review aggregation site Metacritic gives Michael a 39 out of 100, based on 50 reviews. While not as enthusiastic as Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic’s users still gives Michael an impressive 7.8 out of 10, based on 367 user ratings.
A scene from "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie."
Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment
While Michael is currently the fifth-highest domestic earner of 2026, it has a way to go to catch up to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which is the biggest film of 2026. The common denominator for Michael and The Super Mario Galaxy is — like Michael Jackson biopic — the Nintendo video game adaptation was met with poor reviews from critics.
As The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made its way into theaters, the film had a 44% “rotten” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 77 reviews. Since then, the score has improved to a 59% “rotten” score based on 295 reviews. Like Michael, though, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is loved by audiences, having earned a 95% “fresh” score on RT’s Popcornmeter based on 10,000-plus verified user ratings.
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Clearly, the audiences on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic carried their enthusiasm over to the box office. After opening on April 1, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie earned $190.8 million domestically in its first five days, with $131.7 million of that tally coming from the film’s Friday to Sunday ticket sales from April 3-5.
Now in its fifth weekend in North American theaters, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is projected by Deadline to earn $12.1 million for a third-place finish at the domestic box office behind The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael. Should Deadline’s projection hold, it will boost The Super Mario Galaxy Movies’ running domestic take to $402.6 million.
Forbes‘Michael 2’: Studio Is Hoping To Make A Michael Jackson Biopic SequelBy Tim LammersWhile The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s international numbers for its first three-day frame are still pending, the film went into the weekend with a worldwide box office total of $839.1 million. As such, a global tally of at least $900 million for The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel is a big step closer to becoming a reality.
Whether The Super Mario Galaxy Movie can break the $1 billion box office barrier like its predecessor is yet to be seen, but given the fact that the film survived negative reviews to earn as much as it has, there’s no doubt that its studio, Universal Pictures, is happy that the franchise’s audience was still very much game to see the film no matter what any thoughts critics had about the film before it opened.
Forbes‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Rotten Tomatoes Reviews Say Film Is Dressed For SuccessBy Tim Lammers此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。