While some exhaled “this is it??” after watching This Is It, the box office roundup reveals an exhilarating surprise: the Michael Jackson concert-film-cum-documentary-cum-commercial-feature movie This Is It raked in the top earnings at the weekend box office. It earned $21.3 million domestically and $101 million internationally.

The Jacko posthumous offering topped the sleeper sensation Paranormal Activity that raked in $16.5 million. This Is It’s strong pull at the weekend box office ‘prompted distributor Sony to extend its original 2-week run by 3 weeks.’ Tallies reveal that ‘the Sony release easily won both the domestic and foreign race,’ showing victory in both US domestic and foreign markets. Jacko, it seems, still rules the world.

The This Is It movie is described by its director, Kenny Ortega, also the choreographer of the ill-fated London concert series, as a ‘musical mosaic’ that features ‘wall-to-wall’ music. It was originally intended as a concert DVD. It includes edited footages of Michael Jackson rehearsing for the London concert series.

You see Michael onstage rehearsing many of the songs that would’ve appeared in the concert. But there’s no one there watching except for a handful of dancers. And 18,000 empty seats,” Ortega said.

Without having had any advance previews, the top grossing position of the This Is It movie only proves that Michael Jackson may, indeed, be more profitable dead than alive, as some people precisely predicted.

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Via Variety

The Michael Jackson film This Is It has had no advance previews. The first time that excited but puzzled ticket buyers will see it is on Tuesday night. The ‘film’ will have a limited two-week run. For the most part, the ‘film’ which is said to be a hybrid of ‘concert film’ and documentary, includes edited footages of Michael Jackson rehearsing for the ill-fated This Is It London concert series.

‘The film was assembled from intended promo interviews, rehearsal tapes and behind-the-scenes footage planned for a future DVD of Jackson’s never-to-be comeback series of 50 concerts.’ According to the film’s director, Kenny Ortega, the Jackson movie ‘This Is It’ is ‘a musical mosaic.’ Ortega was also the choreographer who was working with Jackson for the London concerts. He was ‘brought in as director when the film deal was struck with Sony Pictures after the singer’s death in June.’

According to Ortega, “It’s the puzzling together of remnants to create something that had continuity to it. It borrows from both the documentary and the concert film idea, but it’s neither of the two. … I said to Sony not to promote it as a concert film because it’s going to confuse people. We never were a concert. We never got that far. We had three weeks left of rehearsal. Sometimes Michael was onstage, and the band was playing, but he wasn’t singing. He was watching, listening. But then he would start to sing (another time), and I had to paste things together to create a full beginning, middle and end performance. The movie will weave in video backgrounds that were designed to play on a giant concert screen. This film isn’t some magical pill or potion that brings Michael back. He’s very much alive in the context of this film. And there’s great joy in visiting with him in that 111 minutes. But at the end of it all, there is tragedy here. And that film isn’t going to make that go away.”

The ‘musical mosaic’ boasts of featuring ‘wall-to-wall’ music. “You see Michael onstage rehearsing many of the songs that would’ve appeared in the concert. But there’s no one there watching except for a handful of dancers. And 18,000 empty seats,” Ortega concludes.

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Via USA TODAY