LOS ANGELES, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Lionsgate's Michael Jackson biopic "Michael" dominated the North American box office in its opening weekend with 97 million U.S. dollars, according to data from measurement firm Comscore released on Sunday.
"Michael" also took in a reported 120.4 million dollars from international markets for an estimated 217.4 million dollars worldwide through Sunday.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film tells the story of Michael Jackson's life beyond the music, highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career.
On the review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of just 38 percent based on 210 critic reviews, while its audience score stands at an impressive 97 percent positive.
After leading the North American box office for three consecutive weeks, Universal and Illumination's animated adventure film "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" slipped to second place in this fourth weekend, grossing 21.2 million dollars for a North American total of 386.5 million dollars.
Rounding out the top three, Amazon MGM Studio's science fiction film "Project Hail Mary" generated 13.2 million dollars in its sixth weekend for a domestic cume of 305.4 million dollars. ■