By Emery Pressman
From Michael Jackson to Mark Zuckerberg, 21st Century Hollywood has churned out film after film dramatizing the lives of various public figures. Chances are, if you have gone to the theater even semi-recently, you had the option to see a biopic – maybe about your favorite band, social activist, or even stockbroker.
However, the entertainment landscape did not always heavily feature multi-million dollar blockbusters starring the most popular A-listers. So, when and why did filmmakers begin to shift their creative and economic focus to the lives of well-known individuals?
To be clear, the biographical drama has been around since even the early 20th century, with Joan of Arc (1900) considered to be the first of its form. Throughout the 1900s however, biopics were considered tasteless and disingenuous representations of their subjects’ lives. Repeatedly cramming entire lives into 120 minutes of screentime left audiences understanding the genre as a “high gloss Hollywood whitewash” of reality. Inevitably, the unfiltered sides of the films’ subjects were wiped from the abbreviated versions of their lives. These factors therefore solidified the biopic as a second-rate genre of the 1900s.
It was not until the early 2000s that a “biopic revolution” began to take over the cinema universe. Several biopics began to present upfront their protagonists’ flaws, and filmmakers realized the genre to be best executed when concentrated on an essential life chapter.
These developments contributed to the modern biopic that we are now familiar with: limited in scope and not sugar-coated. For example, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (2022) walked viewers through Elvis and his manager’s destructive relationship, while Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (2023) distinctly portrayed “the King” as a manipulative, machiavellian husband. The two films made over $320 million combined.
However, the most influential factors that led to the lucrative biopic boom are twofold. Firstly, with social media’s ascent in the late 2010-2020s, cult celebrity culture has flourished. Fans do not just admire their favorite stars, they build their identities and even develop entire digital ecosystems around them.
Rare glimpses into a celebrity’s personal life shared through a social media platform have also contributed to the growing obsession with stars on a more intimate, intense scale. Fans are able to regularly peek into their lives at home or with family and friends in online posts. As a result, the boundary between the celebrity and fan becomes blurred, giving way to a growing obsession with the lifestyles of famous figures. Naturally, a movie concentrated on that very topic promises more interest (and earnings) than it would have received before the past decade’s “omnivorous” growth in celebrity worshipping.
Operating in tandem with cult celebrity culture in the biopic boom is the depletion of the “medium budget” film space. Thanks to the accessibility brought by streaming services, economically sensible individuals would rather watch a free film at home than pay upwards of $20 for the theater experience (especially if that film lacks the spectacle of a high-budget production). Compounded by factors like the collapse of the DVD market and hesitancy to attend theaters post Covid, movies that fall into the medium budget ($20-100 million) category do not make money anymore.
Though, if a movie centers on a well-known figure, studios can ensure that viewers will already have a vested interest in the film, as opposed to one based on an original storyline. With this expectation, a baseline box office turnout is guaranteed. Hence, the biopic became a form of mid-budget film that can actually be profitable for filmmakers.
The global relevance and marketability of biopics is another factor contributing to these films’ financial success. Bohemian Rhapsody, the highest-grossing biopic ever, earned over $900 million, with approximately $694 million of that sum coming from international audiences.
In an era of extreme economic instability and uncertainty regarding the future of the entertainment industry, filmmakers are chasing what they know will reap consistent rewards. Whether or not you believe the biopic genre has oversaturated modern cinema, one can’t deny the success these movies have seen at the box office and award shows.
Biopics have accounted for 63 Oscar nominations in the past four years alone. The Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, is set to come out in April 2026 and is predicted to hit the $1 billion mark in earnings. The film’s teaser trailer has already broken records with more than 116.2 million views within the first 24 hours.
The recent downturn in the entertainment economy, as well as the broader macroeconomic state of the country, may be to blame for Hollywood’s reliance on retelling the lives of prominent figures – a guarantor of steady ticket sales. The often consistent box office performance of biopics illustrates that this hypothesis may in fact be true: nostalgia-provoking films fulfill the movie-going public’s need for a sense of stability and familiarity in an era of economic tumult.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own, and may not reflect the opinions of The St Andrews Economist.
Image via pixabay.