In a moonwalk for the box office history books, Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic returned to No. 1 in its fourth outing with a dreamy $26.3 million, more than enough to wrest the crown from The Devil Wears Prada 2 and top the North American and global weekend charts. Moreover, it celebrated yet another milestone over the weekend in clearing the $700 million mark in worldwide ticket sales.
Michael, from Lionsgate and producer Graham King, is benefiting from the failure of video game adaptation Mortal Kombat II to turn into a crowd-pleaser and expand beyond its core fanbase. The R-rated martial arts pic tumbled 67 percent to $13.5 million in its sophomore outing for a tepid global cume of $101.2 million after finishing its second weekend with a domestic total of $62.2 million and a soft $39 million overseas (Mortal Kombat II had already been set to share Imax auditoriums set aside for the 40th anniversary celebration of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun franchise that included screenings of both the first film and the more recent Top Gun: Maverick. The double-billing grossed well north of $2 million.
Michael finished Sunday with an estimated global cume of $703.9 million, one week after overtaking the entire lifetime run of Bohemian Rhapsody to become the top-grossing music biopic of all time in North America, not adjusted for inflation. Lionsgate tapped Universal to handle the movie overseas, where the film’s estimated cume through Sunday is $421.1 million. Its running domestic total is $242.8 million.
David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 doesn’t have any reason to be grumpy like its famous character, Miranda Priestly. The 20th Century and Disney sequel has fast become the top-grossing female-fueled pic since Barbie, and came in second with $18 million in North America for a global tally of $175.9 million through Sunday and $370.5 million overseas. (While it has access to a number of premium large-format screens, it was never remastered to play in Imax). But Disney’s film empire will soon be the ruler of Imax and all other premium-large format auditoriums when Memorial Day tentpole Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens around the world this week.
Another title performing nicely in the lull before Grogu: emerging director Curry Barker‘s supernatural horror film Obsession, which scared up a promising third-place finish with an estimated $16.1 million from 2,615 theaters, a modest location count in comparison to its competitors and well ahead of an expected $10 million to $12 million opening. From Focus Features and Blumhouse, Obsession has won over both critics and audiences in equal measure, boasting a coveted 94 percent score among both categories on Rotten Tomatoes as of midday Saturday.
Barker, 26, has spent the past few years amassing an avid fan base on YouTube with his sketch comedy channel, That’s a Bad Idea. He next made the $800 found-footage serial killer feature Milk & Serial, which went viral. Almost overnight, everyone in town was trying to win him over; he ultimately signed with UTA.
Obsession, which Focus acquired out of the Toronto Film Festival after a bidding war, stars Michael Johnston as a young man who has long been in love with a friend, Nikki (played by Inde Navarrette), and hopes that she will one day feel the same. But disastrous consequences ensue when he buys a One Wish Willow, which promises its users it will grant one wish upon splitting it in half, and wishes for his friend to love him. Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless and Andy Richter also star.
Amazon MGM’s family-friendly film The Sheep Detectives, likewise a critical and audience favorite, rounded out the top five with an estimated $9 million in its sophomore outing for a domestic total north of $29 million. The comedy-mystery follows a flock of talking sheep who are determined to solve the suspicious death of their beloved shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman, who read them detective novels on a regular basis despite having no idea they could understand him. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of the 2026 box office hit Project Hail Mary, are among the film’s executive producers.
More to come.
This story was originally published on May 16 at 9:24 a.m.
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