Since premiering on October 28th, the Michael Jackson This Is It Film has grossed $101 million over five days including over the busy Halloween weekend. Domestically it took in $32.5 million while international sales were $68.5 million. ”This Is It” already looks to make history as the highest grossing concert film and is mainly due to the extent of Michael Jackson’s popularity around the world.  Because of the huge success of the film, it is now extended an extra two weeks in North America, where in the US will be in theaters until  Thanksgiving. Other parts of the world will extend from 1 to 3 weeks depending on each location.

Since the well-reviewed This Is It film held on over the Halloween weekend without any significant decline between Friday and Saturday, Sony decided to extend the run believing it would fade slowly. Another reason is Sony could not come to an agreement with theater owners for releasing a DVD of the movie before Christmas.

“This Is It” is expected to gross over $200 million in theaters worldwide, plus sales from the DVD release, which should be profitable for Sony and generate considerable  returns both to the Jackson estate and AEG Live. The DVD of the movie will be released in January or February.

Sony has scheduled to release Michael Jackson‘s new song “This Is It” to radio stations Sunday night and will be unveiled and available for download at exactly midnight (October 12th) at MichaelJackson.com. The song was found on a tape which had only contained Michael’s vocal and piano, which was then built into a full arrangement with strings and back up vocals by his brothers. The song is to play in the closing credits of the This Is It film that will be released later this month.

There are more unrleased Michael Jackson songs that will be available to fans in the future. Rob Stringer, chairman of Sony’s Columbia/Epic record label said “We probably have at least 100 songs in varying degrees of being finished and we think there probably is a lot more.”  He also stated, “We haven’t gone into the archive to search it properly yet — it’s just too complicated to do that.”

In a press release from Sony Music Entertainment, a new Michael Jackson song “This Is It” will be released as a single on October 12. The song shares the same title of his This Is It concert comeback tour that Michael Jackson was rehearsing before his death.

Two versions of the This Is It song, which will include backup vocals by Michael Jackson’s brothers, will be featured on a new “This Is It” two-disc cd set. The album will include previously released songs as well as unreleased versions of those same hit songs, plus a never heard before touching spoken-word poem recited by Michael Jackson called “Planet Earth”. The cd set will debut internationally on October 26 and in the US on October 27.

Michael Jackson This Is It Film will be released simultaneously in movie theaters in more than 15 cities around the world, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and Seoul.

The movie is compiled from 100 hours of rehearsal footage taken prior to Michael  Jackson’s sudden death June 25,  for the 50 shows that were to take place in London.

Hollywood movie premieres taking place around the world are rarely ever at the same time as will be in this case with Michael Jackson’s documentary film. The premiere in Los Angeles will be in the evening of October 27 which local time would be after midnight in London October 28.

Jeff Blake, worldwide marketing and distribution chairman for Sony Pictures stated, “Michael Jackson has an army of fans everywhere around the world. We are giving the audiences an incredible opportunity to join together in celebration of Michael Jackson’s incredible career.”

Michael Jackson‘s brother, Jermaine Jackson, and George Kindel, event promoter, announced today that the tribute concert that was to take place on September 26, in front of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace, has been postponed. This was due to scheduling issues for  artists that were to appear.

In answer to critics that big-name artists like Madonna had not signed up, Jermaine Jackson said:  “The purpose of the show is to give something back to the fans, we have to do this right. It’s not about name-dropping”.

The Michael Jackson tribute concert now has moved to London’s Wembley Stadium and to take place next year in June. Kindel also stated that one of the reasons it was moved is because “renowned artists of the tribute were disrespectfully treated as B-list artists or even losers” by the media in Vienna Austria.

Everyone who bought tickets will be refunded and tickets for the rescheduled show will go on sale December 1.