This Is It Tops the Sales List

Michael Jackson fever hasn’t cooled down even nearly eight months after his death. The musical documentary film This Is It, which shows what the This Is It concert series was going to be, topped the national home video sales chart in its first week of release with 1.2 million copies sold—considered a record. 21% of the film’s sales were on Blu-ray. It also holds the number 5 spot in the film rental club, and Saw’s sixth installment is at number 6. The film was released in Japan at the same time as the United States, and on its first day it broke the record with $18 million in sales—more than expected. Sony has launched a wide-ranging advertising campaign for this film. For example, on YouTube, a video of Filipino prisoners dancing with two of Michael’s songs from the film was posted. The video has been viewed 3 million times on that site. At the end of the new dance video, there’s an advertisement for This Is It. Some time ago, Travis Payne, along with two other dancers, went into this prison to teach the prisoners the choreography for two songs from This Is It. 1,500 Filipino prisoners caused a stir a few years ago by performing a group dance to Thriller. The video of that dance, performed in the prison, was viewed more than 37 million times on YouTube. Now, this prison has turned into a tourist center. Prisoners perform Thriller for tourists. They take pride in taking photos with tourists and even selling prison-themed T-shirts and souvenirs. Source: eMJey / hollywoodreporter / TM