Michael Jackson's "This Is It"

Sony released “This is it”, a documentary which traced Michael Jackson’s rehearsals for the would-have-been concert, this Wednesday on the 28th of October. The 112 minutes movie showed footage of the time between April and June when Jackson had been rehearsing for the “sold-out concert” which he was going to stage at the O2 Arena in London. The concert sadly never happened, but some intelligent minds and hardcore fans like Director Kenny Ortega and some Sony Pictures executives brought out this idea of the documentary film. The whole behind-the-scenes régale is a treat to every Jackson fan and brings alive the real charisma of Jackson.

The documentary shows the rehearsals held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center and the Forum. Sony paid $60 million to get the rights of the more than 100 hours of footage. Ortega, who had been the creative director for MJ’s Memorial Service, compiled the interviews, backstage extras and rehearsals into a film that a fan recounts was “overflowed with his energy, passion, and dedication”.

Keeping the global Jackson-appeal in mind this documentary was released in 99 countries including Japan, South Africa, Brazil, China, Norway and the U.S. (of course). Fans all around the world got to see their beloved “King of Pop” at the premiere on Tuesday night. Although the film started at an extremely late hour, fans still remained faithful to their Pop-Czar.

The midweek release of “This is it” earned $7.4 million in U.S. and an additional $12.7 million from around the world. The total grossing in the first day was $20.1 million. This is supposed to be the highest for an October midweek release. For the individual money-scores, U.K. turned out to the highest seller grossing $1.9 million, just a little before France with $1.4 million. The global phenomena can be seen as Japan, Germany and China followed France with $1.2 million, $1.1 million and $730,000 respectively.

These numbers, although, might still turn a sad face for the Sony producers as their sales projections were much higher than this. They had expected a return of $20 million only from the U.S. which was not achieved. It is now to be seen whether the next few weeks will bring in the expected returns of $30 to &50 millions or not.

But, looking at the whole picture, this is a tribute film made for the fans, by the fans, to the fans. Let us just let it remain there and not remunerate them.

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