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'Where have I heard this song before?'

Movies existed before movie musicals, but since the ability to put music to the films we watch in theaters, at home, and now on our phones, it has become an integral part of the experience. And in many cases, it comes to the fore when a well-known song gets co-opted for use in a film to heighten the feel and story of a movie; I'm not talking the John Williams' 'The Imperial March' in Empire Strikes Back, I'm talking Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' in Deadpool & Wolverine. But that has now gone to a whole new level with the rise of jukebox biopics.

What is a jukebox biopic?

The jukebox biopic is the convergence of two other popular forms of entertainment: the jukebox musical and the biopic.

The term 'jukebox musical' was originally coined for stage musicals - specifically ones that co-opted already popular music of the time, but it quickly was adopted into movies that used popular music as its basis, such as the '50s Gene Kelly films Singin' in the Rain and Rock Around the Clock. Now, pretty much any movie that uses already-popular music in the movie itself can be called a 'jukebox musical.' 

Biographical films (or 'biopics') are a re-enactment of the real life of an individual or individuals using actors and staged surroundings. This can be anything from serious subject matter like Schindler's List to more fictionalized versions of real people, such as Braveheart and Goodfellas.

While biopics can contain popular music and jukebox musicals can be based on real-life people, the jukebox biopic gestalts it all together to be much different than those individual things - in someway a modern-day VH1 Behind the Music, in some ways a classic MTV-style music video, and in all the ways it gives us an anchor in the usage of popular music so we can already sing along (even if its in our heads.). And in the case of most all jukebox biopics, it's about someone you know - even if you don't really know - in the Bob Dylan jukebox biopic A Complete Unknown.

But again, it still has music, you know - even if you don't know how you know it. 

What made jukebox biopics popular?

Now, I'm not going to sit here and uncover the first-ever jukebox biopic - that sounds like a Wikipedia page. But the first one I remember watching as a child of the '80s was the Loretta Lynn jukebox biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and the oldest one I can claim to have watched is the excellent James Stewart movie The Glen Miller story from 1954. I enjoyed The Joy Division movie Control (probably more so for the music than the movie), and movies like 1984's Amadeus and 2015's Straight Outta Compton have held onto me far longer than most movies.

For many, what people think of when they think of jukebox biopics, however, is 2005's Walk the Line, starring the gloriously dark and complicated Joaquin Phoenix as the gloriously dark and complicated Johnny Cash. This was A Complete Unknown director James Mangold's first stab at the subgenre, and while previous jukebox biopic hit its notes, this one struck a chord and stayed with people - to the point it was parodied in a Weird Al-style comedy parody that people paid real money for called Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story just two years later.

However, the watershed moment for jukebox biopics for those inside Hollywood who greenlight these things was in 2018. It was then that the Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody was released, receiving both critical acclaim (including a 'Best Picture' nomination at the Academy Awards, and a win for it at the Golden Globes), but also commercially, making just shy of a billion dollars in theaters. That's amazing, especially considering its budget of $55m, making 1656% times the money it cost to make.

That same year, under the radar for many, another jukebox biopic did similarly with I Can Only Imagine, based on the Christian rock band MercyMe. That film was made for a paltry $7m and took in $86m, making 1229% times its investment.

While jukebox biopics existed before 2018, following 2018 everyone - and every major musician and every major studio - seemed to want to get in the game. Here is a list of the major announced jukebox biopics:

• Michael, based on Michael Jackson 
• Deliver Me From Nowhere, based on Bruce Springsteen
• Get It While You Can, based on Janis Joplin
• The Woman in Me, based on Britney Spears
• Untitled Linda Ronstadt movie
• Untitled Prince movie
• Untitled Ronnie Spector movie
• Beautiful, based on Carole King
• Untitled Nat King Cole movie
• Untitled Madonna movie

We're even getting the first jukebox musical cinematic universe in Sam Mendes' upcoming four-movie series on the Beatles. 

While that might seem like a massive list, at the same time, I can also hear you thinking 'What about....?', so you see where this is going.

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