"Michael" surpasses one billion dollars and becomes the highest-grossing biographical film at the box office

The cinema that fills theaters and the one that fills festivals follow two distinct calendars, and August shows them side by side: on one hand a biographical film that has just closed its theatrical run, on the other the program of the Venice Film Festival, set to begin in September.

The box office record. “Michael”, the biographical musical film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan, has surpassed one billion dollars in worldwide box office earnings. It is the second title of 2026 to reach that threshold. In doing so it has surpassed Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”, becoming the highest-grossing biographical film in history overall. The figures are reported by the Variety editorial team and in the reconstruction based on Box Office Mojo of the weekly number-one films in the United States, where the film had debuted with 97.2 million dollars, surpassing the previous record set by “Straight Outta Compton”.

Two elements deserve to be kept separate. The 97.2 million debut concerns only the US market and only the opening week; the billion concerns the accumulated worldwide gross. The first measures the ability to draw audiences on the opening weekend, that is, the performance of the launch; the second measures staying power over time and penetration outside the United States. The fact that both are category records indicates that the film did not live off its debut alone.

The move to streaming. Since August 10, 2026, “Michael” has been available on Starz. The detail is not marginal in the economics of the title: the film arrives at domestic distribution after having completed its theatrical run and after having established the category record, not before. This is the sequence that allows the entire box office result to be attributed to the theatrical release, without the overlap typical of simultaneous releases.

The festival calendar. Three weeks later, the eighty-third International Film Festival opens, at the Lido in Venice from September 2 to 12, 2026, under the artistic direction of Alberto Barbera. Opening the festival, in competition and as a world premiere, is “Ink”, directed by Danny Boyle: the cast includes Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy. The subject is drawn from the play of the same title by James Graham, which reconstructs how Rupert Murdoch came to take over the Sun. The closing film, out of competition, is “Dio ride” by Giovanni Veronesi, in the Sala Grande on Saturday, September 12, after the awards ceremony. The program can be viewed on the website of the Biennale di Venezia, and was presented at the press conference covered by Lost in Cinema and by Sky TG24.

Five Italian films are in competition, directed by Marco Bechis, Edoardo De Angelis, Andrea Pallaoro, Paolo Strippoli and Nanni Moretti, who returns to competition forty-five years later. The international jury is chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal; the Golden Lions for lifetime achievement go to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn. The pre-opening, on September 1 in the Sala Darsena, is dedicated to the 4K restoration of “Col cuore in gola” by Tinto Brass, from 1967.

The point of contact. Between the two calendars there is a thematic coincidence that has gone largely unnoticed: the film opening Venice tells the story of a publisher’s acquisition of a newspaper, while the film that has just set the box office record tells the story of a musician’s life. Both work from real figures and documentary archives. The two paths — the global theatrical release and the festival competition — draw on the same narrative reservoir, biography, with entirely different industrial outcomes: one billion dollars on one side, eleven days of screenings at the Lido on the other.