The King of Pop Is Still Number One

This Is It spent its first day of release with $7.4 million in domestic sales and $12.7 million outside North America—meaning total worldwide sales of $20.1 million.

Sony says the $7.4 million sales for a film on Wednesday in October is the best figure recorded so far. The film had the highest sales among weekend movies. The previous week’s number one was Paranormal Activity, with $1.5 million in sales. Sony says it expects strong sales for Friday and Sunday. But on Saturday, sales may drop because it coincides with Halloween celebrations.

So far, the highest sales for a music documentary film belong to “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” which last year had a weekend total of $31.1 million and sold $65.3 million worldwide over its entire run.

Details of This Is It’s sales on day one are as follows: $1.9 million in the UK, $1.4 million in France, $1.2 million in Japan, and $1.1 million in Germany. On Wednesday, the film was released in 99 countries worldwide, and on Thursday, 10 more countries were added to that total.

Source: eMJey / AP