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.