Golden Globes rule Michael is not a musical and send it to drama, where Bohemian Rhapsody won
The Golden Globes have denied Lionsgate's bid to run Michael as a comedy or musical, even with a letter from director Antoine Fuqua. The studio loses the category it asked for, but the drama room has the better record: Bohemian Rhapsody won Best Picture there.
Michael has the songs and the red jacket. As of this week, it also has an official ruling that none of that makes it a musical.
Lionsgate asked the Golden Globes to let its Michael Jackson biopic compete in the comedy or musical categories. Variety confirmed on Tuesday that the request was denied; Gold Derby reported it first. The submission came with a letter from director Antoine Fuqua, which Globes procedure requires when a film asks for a category it would not normally land in. The organization reviewed the letter and said no anyway.
Lionsgate can appeal before the October 31 submission deadline. Variety's sources say it probably will not. The studio declined to comment.
One sentence in the rulebook decided it
The Globes' definition is short: "A musical can be a comedy or a drama in which songs are used in addition to spoken dialogue to further the plot." The songs have to move the story. Performing them is not enough.
In Michael, Jaafar Jackson performs many of his uncle's biggest hits. According to Variety, the Globes evidently saw those sequences as re-creations of Michael Jackson's performances, not as storytelling devices. A concert reproduced on screen is still a concert.
The practical effect is narrow. Jackson moves to Best Actor – Drama. The film competes for one of six Best Motion Picture – Drama slots, against Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey among others. Supporting categories do not split by genre, so Colman Domingo and Nia Long are untouched.
The rule was written after one and a half wins
Variety traces the requirement to the mid-2000s, when Ray and Walk the Line both "competed in, and won" the comedy or musical categories, which prompted the Globes to tighten the definition. The Globes' own awards database is less generous to one of the two:
- Walk the Line (2006 ceremony): three nominations, three wins, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, plus Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in the lead acting categories.
- Ray (2005 ceremony): two nominations, one win. Jamie Foxx took Best Actor – Musical or Comedy. The film itself was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and lost.
So the sweep that changed the rule was one film and one performance. The rule stayed.
Drama has been the better room for music biopics
Since then, Variety notes, the big music biopics have gone in as dramas: Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis, A Complete Unknown. The one notable exception was Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers' story of a fictional folk singer, which was allowed to compete as a comedy. Here is how each did, by the Globes' database:
- Bohemian Rhapsody (drama, 2019): two nominations, two wins — Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actor – Drama for Rami Malek.
- Elvis (drama, 2023): three nominations, one win — Best Actor – Drama for Austin Butler.
- A Complete Unknown (drama, 2025): three nominations, no wins.
- Inside Llewyn Davis (comedy or musical, 2014): three nominations, no wins.
The exception Variety names, the one film let into the musical room, went home with nothing. Two of the three sent to drama won there, and one of them took the top prize.
A billion dollars buys a category, just not the one Lionsgate asked for
Michael opened on April 24. Variety calls it the first biopic in history to pass $1 billion worldwide and Lionsgate's biggest release ever. Box Office Mojo's 2026 worldwide chart has it at $1,028,703,388, fourth for the year. Bohemian Rhapsody, the old benchmark for the genre, finished at $911,084,758.
Jaafar Jackson had never acted professionally before the film. He is now one of six names in Variety's own predicted lineup for Best Actor – Drama, and Colman Domingo is in its predicted Supporting Actor field.
The film itself appears in that same tracker in one place: Box Office and Cinematic Achievement. It is not among Variety's six predicted nominees for Best Motion Picture – Drama, the category the Globes just assigned it to.
What is still unknown
- Whether Lionsgate files an appeal before October 31. Sources told Variety it is unlikely.
- Which musical sequences, if any, the Globes considered close to the line. The reasoning has not been published.
- How the drama field shakes out. Nominations are announced on Monday, December 7. The ceremony, hosted by Nikki Glaser, is on Sunday, January 10.
The Globes tightened the rule after music biopics won as musicals. The one exception Variety names since then, Inside Llewyn Davis, ran as a comedy and won nothing. Bohemian Rhapsody, filed as a drama, won Best Picture. Michael just got the room Lionsgate did not want, and the one with the better record.