This Is It

On October 28, I went to see "This Is It" with my friend Amanda. It was something we had been planning for awhile and I got tickets shortly after they went on sale and we wanted to go to the midnight showing the day it opened, but logistics didn't exactly work in our favour, so we settled for the 7:00 p.m. showing the day it opened. We got there early and even then the theatre was packed. It was kind of amazing the age range of people that were there--there were older people, people closer in age to Amanda and I, and probably the most surprising quite a few kids (who granted were probably only there because of their parents, but still).

Anyway, the day it opened (in LA) there was a huge premier including members of the Jackson Family and a bunch of celebs (obviously). Google also participated by changing their banner to reflect The King of Pop.



The movie itself was pretty freaking awesome. We had some idea of what to expect, but it was so much more than that too. This Is It, showed Michael Jackson in rehearsals for his upcoming concerts and gave fans a look at MJ that had he not passed away, we never would have gotten to see. After seeing the movie I was reading other reviews online and as some people wrote, the movie also showed "what could have been"...had he not passed away, the actual concerts themselves would have no doubt been amazing. Some people have also stated that, while the movie shows fans a brief look at what the concerts would have been, it's also highly likely that Michael Jackson would not be pleased with such a "rough" look at his rehearsals being put into a movie and released such as they were. Maybe that is true, but as someone who has had the same Jackson 5 CD since high school, and almost every Michael Jackson song recorded on my computer and iPod, I'm glad it was released as a movie. I never would have gotten the chance to see him perform live and while this definitely isn't the same thing, it was a pretty good alternative.

In its first night in theaters, This Is It made an estimated $2.2 million, with Sony projecting it would go on to make about $40 million in the first weekend.

Weekend Gross: $23,234,394 (estimate was $21.5 million)
Total Domestic Gross (as of 11/2/09): $36,898,026
International Gross (as of 11/2/09): $69,463,206

Overall, This Is Is made a Worldwide Gross of about $106,361,232 (estimate was $101 million) .

A few days after the movie opened, Director Kenny Ortega said in an interview that the DVD would also include about 2-3 hours extra footage, that wasn't seen in theaters.


Amanda and I were talking about when the DVD would be released. Think it's safe to assume it'll hit stores just in time for Christmas...lol...and I definitely want it..hint hint :)