Michael Jackson’s Catalog Keeps Climbing in the Third Week of Michael Biopic’s Run, With Janet Seeing Gains Too

Michael Jackson is still setting personal streaming records three weeks into the release of Michael, and the ripple effect is reaching Janet Jackson as well.

For the May 1-7 tracking week, Jackson’s solo catalog logged 181.6 million official on-demand song streams in the United States, according to Luminate. That topped his previous high of 137.6 million from the week before, which had already been a major jump from 55.9 million. The surge comes as the biopic continues to drive renewed attention to his biggest songs and a string of chart moves.

“Billie Jean” remained his most-streamed track for the week, collecting 14.8 million official on-demand streams, up 31.7% from 11.3 million. That gain pushed the song from No. 38 to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it had spent seven weeks at No. 1 in its original run. Thriller cuts “Beat It” and “Human Nature” followed, with 11.4 million and 10.8 million streams, respectively.

Early Luminate data suggests Jackson could post another huge week. The first three days of May 8-10 already accounted for more than 86 million official on-demand streams, putting him on pace for another record run and, possibly, a 200 million-plus week if the pace holds.

Janet Jackson, who does not appear in Michael and is not mentioned in the film, is also up. La Toya Jackson said Janet “kindly declined” to be depicted in the movie. Even so, her catalog reached more than 9.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending May 7, her best total of 2026 so far and a 31% increase from 6.9 million two weeks earlier, according to Luminate.

One clear driver is “Scream,” the lone track co-credited to Michael and Janet Jackson, which drew nearly 1.2 million streams in the latest tracking week. Even without that duet, Janet’s catalog is still up 20% from two weeks earlier, a gain of nearly 1.4 million streams. The biopic may have left her out, but the numbers have not. — Andrew Unterberger

The Chemical Brothers also picked up a major sync boost through Netflix’s survival thriller Apex. The film, starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, features the group’s 2015 track “Go” in its official trailer, which arrived March 25, before the movie landed on Netflix April 24.

Interest accelerated after viewers latched onto Egerton’s dance scene in the film, turning it into a meme challenge around the song. On TikTok, the official “Go” sound now has more than 68,000 clips, while the track has nearly 60,000 uses on Instagram Reels. Luminate says the song jumped from more than 91,000 official on-demand U.S. streams the week before Apex hit Netflix to more than 487,000 during the film’s debut week, then to 1.3 million the following week. Over two weeks, that marked a streaming increase of more than 1,319%.

The surge has also pushed “Go” to No. 9 on Dance/Electronic Songs, its highest chart position to date for The Chemical Brothers. More gains could follow if the Netflix boost holds. — Kyle Denis

Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away” is seeing a similar second life, this time through social media use tied to fictional breakups, real-life emotion and a steady stream of nostalgia. The 2011 single originally peaked at No. 3 and was the sixth release from Teenage Dream’s standard edition.

Its recent rise has been slow but consistent over the past year. This winter, fans used the song to mark the end of fictional romances, including around the final season of Stranger Things, which aired last November and December. By spring, it was showing up in two main lanes online: as a soundtrack for escape from domestic violence or for dramatic defenses of loved ones, and as a mourning song for fictional pairings from Euphoria, perceived real-life friendship between Rihanna and Perry, and Manon’s hiatus from KATSEYE. Other users leaned into the song’s age and endurance, pointing to how much emotional weight it still carries 15 years later.

That attention has shown up in the numbers. During March 6-12, “The One That Got Away” logged more than 2.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams. By April 3-9, it had climbed to more than 3.9 million, and by May 1-7 it had reached over 6.2 million, a 118% increase over two months, according to Luminate.

Perry has also moved to capitalize on the momentum. She posted a “director’s cut” of the video on April 21, narrated by Stevie Nicks, used an acoustic version in TikTok clips from her Met Gala glam sessions, and joked about Josh Groban’s engagement announcement by pairing a screenshot of the news with the song. On May 13, she released a compilation album titled The One That Got the Plays, with “The One That Got Away” placed first on the tracklist. The track now stands as Perry’s highest-charting song on the Billboard Global 200 since the chart launched in September 2020, peaking at No. 37. — KD