Michael Jackson's This Is It (Sony) will win Halloween weekend, but it is certainly not the posthumous blockbuster that the Jackson estate had anticipated. After generating about $11.2M from Tuesday midnight through Thursday, the movie surged to a decent $8M on Friday, but the first few days have taken a lot of steam out of the movie. Culled together from rehearsals for MJ's scheduled concerts at London's O2, This Is It! has received solid reviews, but the 5-day domestic cume will be a disappointing $33.2M by Monday morning.
The 3-day gross of an estimated $22M will make the Michael Jackson epic only the #2 opening ever for a concert film, finishing well behind Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour (Disney), which seized $31.1M in its first 3 days in theatres in February of 2008.
The box office sensation Paranormal Activity (Paramount) continued its staggering run to start the weekend with a strong $5.9M, and my sources tell me that about $15.3M is likely in the cards for the weekend. Made for just $15,000 and acquired by Paramount for $300,000, Paranormal will reach a domestic cume of $83.5M by Sunday night virtually guaranteeing $100M+ for the geniuses in distribution and marketing over on Melrose.
EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON FRIDAY & 3-DAY ESTIMATES FOR OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 1
1. NEW - Michael Jackson's This Is It (Sony) - $8M Fri - $22M 3-day - $33.2M 5-day cume
2. Paranormal Activity (Paramount) - $5.9M Fri - $15.3M 3-day - $83.5M cume
3. Law Abiding Citizen (Overture) - $2.4M Fri - $6.9M 3-day - $51M cume
4. Couple's Retreat (Universal) - $2.4M Fri - $6.7M 3-day - $87.2M cume
5. Where the Wild Things Are (Warner Bros) - $2.2M Fri - $6.5M 3-day - $63.2M cume
6. Saw VI (Lionsgate) - $2M Fri - $5.1M 3-day - $22.3M cume
For a so-called Documentary, $33mil is damn good. I don't know what the critics expect.
Posted by: Chicago48 | October 31, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Actually, it was Sony themselves who started the hype machine in full throttle when they were crowing to the media a few weeks back how the MJ movie was set to make $250 million worldwide in its first five days and break B-O records. Too bad they have to eat crow now!
Posted by: Jeff | October 31, 2009 at 02:16 PM
It did well, Like expected.. MJ still rocks!!!
Posted by: internet pharmacy | November 05, 2009 at 07:42 PM