Michael Jackson film,This Is It Earns $101 Million Worldwide Around The Globe

Michael Jackson film,This Is It Earns $101 Million Worldwide Around The Globe

As expected, "Michael Jackson's This Is It" was the box-office champion over the Halloween weekend, taking in an estimated $21.3 million in the United States. The bigger news was that the documentary chronicling the King of Pop's final rehearsals for his planned 50-show comeback residency in London banked more than $101 million worldwide.The totals easily made "This Is It" the #1 movie in America, beating out the still-strong thriller "Paranormal Activity," which was second with $16.5 million. Fans who didn't wait in line or rush out to see

"This Is It" during its first few days in theaters also got a reprieve, as Sony Pictures — the studio that paid $60 million for the rights to release the film — announced that the planned two-week-only engagement will now be extended through Thanksgiving.
"This Is It" was the only new movie to open nationwide in the last week, as most studios wanted to avoid competing with trick-or-treating and Halloween parties.

Sony was forced to pick the date for "This Is It" because it wanted to rush the film out this fall and every other weekend was crowded with major new releases.

Two new movies opened in limited release Friday, however, to varying results.

Apparition's "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" started with a decent $461,614 at 68 locations. That's more than 15 times the ticket sales for the ultra-violent original, an infamous flop in 2000 that found renewed life on DVD.

Fox Searchlight's "Gentleman Broncos," from "Napoleon Dynamite" director Jared Hess, opened to a weak $10,000 at two theaters.

Weinstein Co. expanded its August release of "Halloween II" to take advantage of the holiday, but grossed just $475,000 at 1,083 theaters.

Overall, the weekend box office was a bit better than expected, as total weekend ticket sales rose 5% from a year earlier, Hollywood.com said.
Fans flocked to movie theaters this weekend to remember the King of Pop and see his last moments, as played out on the big screen in This Is It.

The documentary, which includes rehearsal footage of Michael Jackson, 51, prepping for his ill-fated "This Is It" London concert tour at Los Angeles' Staples Center just hours before he died of cardiac arrest, was so well received in its first five days that distributor Sony has extended the film's run until Thanksgiving.

Michael Jackson's That is Review The Film is Fitting Tribute On ...

Michael Jackson's That is Review The Film is Fitting Tribute On ...

Michael Jackson's This Is It has all the singer's hits in their toe-tapping glory. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Sony Pictures Releas/PA

For everyone who's thirsted for more Michael Jackson since his death little more than four months ago, the wait is finally over. For the rest of us, it's time to look on in awe as Jackson's memory – and the legendary fervency of his fans – is ruthlessly exploited till the pips squeak.

As is all too well known, Jackson was carried off shortly before embarking on a 50-date residency at London's O2 Arena to try and pay off his rumoured $500m debts; footage shot during rehearsal for this series of shows forms

the vast majority of this much-heralded and hyped film, and goes some of the way to plugging both fans' disappointment and his estate's balance sheet.

"You know, I was driving towards Sunset Boulevard ... when the phone rang and it was my cousin in Atlanta, then my mother, then it was on the radio and then I called Staples. I spoke to Kenny and he goes, 'You know how that goes — you know how the media is.' "

Music supervisor Michael Bearden also heard the news from his mom, but couldn't believe it was true. "My mother called me. I hadn't spoken to her in a while and she said, 'Well, I heard something about Michael.' She heard it on gossip channel," he said. "I said, 'Don't believe that. I just left Michael. I just saw him. He's fine.' And then I started getting call after call."

Unfortunately, the news wasn't gossip — the King of Pop had in fact died. Ortega broke the news to the group. "We became silent," Payne said. "We prayed and then we ultimately got the call. They said he had passed, and that was very hard."