Michael Jackson deserves more than ever
and he has been dead for seventeen years
I have now been to Michael (the film about the life of Michael Jackson) twice and afterwards I only have questions. One of many is; how much does Michael Jackson earn posthumously with this film? How many times are his songs being listened to now? My Spotify is currently on repeat with everything from Michael Jackson and I can't be the only one. Michael Jackson dominates the streaming charts from his grave, breaks box office records, and makes his heirs richer than ever. Since the release of the biopic Michael on April 24, 2026, something has erupted that is difficult to put into ordinary words. The King of Pop reigns again.
100 million listeners
Let's start with Spotify, because I am indeed not the only one devouring everything from Michael Jackson on Spotify. Just before the premiere, Michael Jackson had about 68 million monthly listeners on the platform. A week after the release, the count was already at 73 million. Then it continued: 85 million, 95 million, and finally he surpassed the 100 million monthly listeners mark for the first time in his history. There is no living artist who achieves that after seventeen years of silence.
Billie Jean reached number one on Spotify’s Daily Global Chart with more than 6 million streams in one day, the highest daily figure the song has ever achieved. Beat It climbed into the global top ten, and Smooth Criminal, Thriller, Human Nature, and Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough all reached new streaming records. In the week after the premiere, Jackson was in seventh place among the most streamed artists in the world, behind Taylor Swift, Drake, and Bad Bunny. For an artist whose commercial peak was decades before the streaming era, that is a figure that is hard to comprehend.
The Jackson 5 shared in the madness. Their catalog rose by 400% compared to the same period a month earlier, with 3.7 million streams in one day as an absolute peak, their best streaming day ever.
The film itself
The biopic Michael, starring Jaafar Jackson, the son of Jermaine, opened with 97 million dollars in the United States and 217 million dollars worldwide in its opening weekend. This broke the record for the largest biopic premiere ever. Critics were harsh, the film stands at 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience didn't care and gave the film an audience score of 97%. The global revenue is now approaching 600 million dollars, and a sequel has already been announced.
The budget of the film was nearly 200 million dollars, an investment shared by Lionsgate, Universal, and the Michael Jackson estate itself. That last investment is now more than paying off.
3.5 billion dollars after his death
Since Michael Jackson passed away in June 2009, his estate has generated more than 3.5 billion dollars. Forbes placed him at the top of the list of highest-earning deceased celebrities again in 2025, with an estimated annual profit of 105 million dollars. An estate lawyer dryly told the magazine: when it comes to estate income, it's Michael Jackson, then a huge gap, and then everyone else.
That money comes from multiple sources at once. The Broadway production MJ: The Musical has now generated nearly 300 million dollars worldwide. The Las Vegas show Michael Jackson ONE has had more than 5,000 performances and will run until 2030. And in 2024, the estate sold 50% of his master recordings and music publishing to Sony Music for 600 million dollars, one of the largest music deals in history.
Who inherits all this?
The heirs of Michael Jackson are his three children, Prince, Paris, and Bigi, and his mother Katherine. In his will, he explicitly excluded his father Joe Jackson and ensured that the money would go to his mother and children. Prince Jackson, now 29 years old, was closely involved as an executive producer in the biopic and was present on set almost every day according to producer Graham King. His sister Paris kept her distance and publicly expressed her criticism of the project. Bigi, the youngest, attended the premiere in Berlin but did not comment further on the film.
How the income is precisely divided within the estate remains largely private, but that the estate as a whole benefits from the biopic is beyond doubt. The combination of box office revenue, an exploding streaming catalog, and renewed global attention has pushed its financial value to a new historic high in 2026.
An unprecedented comeback
The remarkable thing about all this is that there was no one who planned this as a traditional comeback. There is a film about a man who has been dead for seventeen years, played by his own nephew, and the result is that a new generation discovers Billie Jean for the first time, and people like me relive and rediscover the eighties with their children.
Michael Jackson pushed the boundaries of what was possible his entire life. It turns out he is still very good at that even after his death. And me? I might go a third time this week.
Photo Credit: Getty & Glen Wilson\/Lionsgate
