Michael Jackson biopic arrives with the weight of great Hollywood narratives: a global figure, a famous family, a body of work that continues to fill cinemas and push songs up the charts. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film stars Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the lead role, with a release date announced on April 24, 2026 on the film’s official website. But behind this much-talked-about news item, there’s another image worth rereading from the Caribbean: Bob Marley on stage at Kingston’s National Stadium on March 8, 1975, during a Jackson Five concert.
A box-office success
The film not only awakened curiosity about Michael Jackson. It also created a major commercial event. According to the Associated Press, Michael took in $97 million on its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, setting a new box-office record for a musical biopic. Internationally, the film added another $120.4 million, for an estimated worldwide total of $217.4 million over its opening weekend.
This result far exceeds initial expectations. The Associated Press reports that initial projections were for around $50 million, before being raised to around $70 million. In the end, audiences took the film well beyond these forecasts, despite a more divided critical reception.
This difference between the public’s reception and that of some critics already says something. Michael Jackson remains a figure who unites, divides, fascinates and questions. Cinema is bringing his story back to the fore, but audiences are also returning to his music, his images and his beginnings with the Jackson Five.
The Jackson Five back in the news
The film’s effect was also seen in the listening figures. According to Luminate data cited by the Associated Press, Michael Jackson’s catalog grew by 95% in the U.S. over the weekend of the film’s release. On April 24 and 25, his tracks generated 31.7 million listens, compared with 16.3 million a week earlier.
The Jackson Five also benefited from this effect. The family group went from 1.3 million to 2.4 million listens over the same period, an increase of 85%. This is an important figure, as it takes us back to the Michael Jackson of the pre-global solo era: the child prodigy of an African-American group who became one of the symbols of Motown and 1970s pop. It is precisely through this door that Kingston reappears in the story.
Kingston, March 8 1975: the Caribbean image
On March 8, 1975, Kingston’s National Stadium welcomed the Jackson Five. Bob Marley is also documented on stage that evening. Google Arts & Culture holds a photograph entitled Bob Marley live at the Jackson Five Concert at the National Stadium, Jamaica. The card lists Neville Garrick as the creator, Kingston, Jamaica as the associated venue, and March 8, 1975 as the date of creation. A second Google Arts & Culture entry provides further context: Bob Marley live at the National Stadium, Kingston opening for the Jackson 5, also listing Neville Garrick as creator and the date March 8, 1975.
These archives don’t allow us to invent a conversation between Michael Jackson and Bob Marley. Nor can they romanticize a private encounter. But they are enough to establish a powerful fact: at the same time, in the same stadium, Kingston brought together two major trajectories in twentieth-century black music.
Jamaica, a crossroads, not a backdrop
This archive is important because it puts Jamaica back on the map. Kingston is not just another exotic stop on an American tour. The Jamaican capital is a place of stage, audience, memory and musical circulation. In 1975, Bob Marley was already at the heart of a movement that went far beyond Jamaica. Reggae was gaining international recognition, driven by a political, spiritual and social message. Opposite him, the Jackson Five embodied another black history, coming from the United States, with the power of pop, soul and American television.
The Kingston evening shows a point of contact. Not an artificial fusion. Not an appropriation. A crossroads. Jamaica plays host to part of the Jackson Five story at the very moment it asserts its own musical strength to the world.
What the biopic allows us to reread
The Michael Jackson biopic tells the story of a life in American cinema. It brings to the fore childhood, performances, family, ambition and the weight of a legend. But the Kingston archive adds another depth to the story. It reminds us that great musical stories are not only built in American studios, record companies and concert halls. They also live on in the places where they are received, shared and sometimes transformed by other audiences. Kingston is such a place. On March 8, 1975, the National Stadium became a discreet but powerful landmark: that of a Jamaica present in the global circulation of black music.
Today, the film’s topicality draws attention to Michael Jackson. The Jamaican archive invites us to look around him too: the scenes he crossed, the audiences he met, the artists present on the same poster, the photographers who captured these moments. The Michael Jackson biopic puts a world legend back in the spotlight. Kingston, on the other hand, reminds us that the Caribbean has its own images of this history. And one question remains: how many other Caribbean archives, linked to the greatest figures of popular culture, are still waiting to be told from their own territory?
The Michael Jackson biopic puts the spotlight back on the singer’s early days with the Jackson Five. The news also provides an opportunity to re-read a 1975 Jamaican archive showing Bob Marley on stage at Kingston’s National Stadium, during a Jackson Five concert.
Yes, archives referenced by Google Arts & Culture document Bob Marley on stage at Kingston’s National Stadium on March 8, 1975, as part of a Jackson Five concert. The image is associated with the name Neville Garrick.
This archive shows that Kingston was more than just a stopping-off point for musical greats. It reminds us that Jamaica was already a major cultural crossroads, where reggae, soul, black American pop and Caribbean memory intersected.
