“This Is It” Is A Hit

The first day’s earnings for “This Is It,” the Michael Jackson concert film/documentary, are thought to be in the $4.4 million range in the US–$2.2 million for the Tuesday night special showings, and another $2.2 million on Wednesday, the film’s official opening day (numbers courtesy of Variety).

“This Is It” is playing in 3,500 theaters in the US; by the weekend, it is expected that there will be 15,000 prints  available in 110 countries. The gross worldwide should be considerably higher than in the US, I would think, as Jackson had retained internationally a lot of the popularity he had lost in the US (until his death; since then he’s been quite in vogue).

Sony had paid $60 million for the rights to the footage that became the film. Now it’s expected to easily top the $31 million first weekened earnings of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert film in 2008. The reviews have been pretty good, too.

What a shame Jackson didn’t have all this go his way during his life; he could have had a second act–or even third–after a long decline.