This Is It Disappoints In First Day

The results are in and the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It has opened on Wednesday with 7.4 million. That number includes 2.2 million that it made on Tuesday night screenings. That puts This Is It on track to make in the range of 32-36 million over the opening five days.

Industry expectations were all over the board. On the low side was around a 10 million opening day but that extended all the way up to some predictions of a five day take larger than that of The Dark Knight. While I didn’t believe it would approach the opening Wednesday record I am very surprised it didn’t even make the Top 40 for the day. I think I bought into the hype a little but primarily overestimated the draw based on the ground swell of support in the days following his death and the potential of it being such an event due to the unprecedented nature surrounding the film.

In comparison the top grossing concert film currently is Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds. That made 8.6 million on opening day (Friday) and finished its three day opening weekend with 31.1 million. It now looks as though This Is It will not even beat Miley Cyrus with its three day weekend take. Its five days won’t even surpass it by much. That says a lot considering the statements beforehand about how it was crushing everything including Miley in pre-sales data.

This Is It will still end up a big success even with the lower than expected gross domestically. Worldwide it will rake in far more than what it will make in the US and it will be a big hit on DVD. However the latest is that it will not make it to DVD/Blu-ray until late January or early February. The original plan had been to have it out before Christmas which would’ve offered significantly increased sales potential.