It’s that simple. Michael Jackson’s This Is It, highlighting the singer’s rehearsal performances in what would have been the concert event of the millennium, easily took the top spot at the box office this weekend, grossing $32.5 million domestically and $101 million worldwide.
Here is the top five this weekend:
1. NEW! Michael Jackson’s This Is It (Sony) – $21.3 mil; 3,481 theaters; $6,119 PT; $32.5 mil cume (opened Wednesday)
2. Paranormal Activity (Paramount) – $16,.4 mil; 2,404 theaters; $6,880 PT; $84,.7 mil cume
3. Law Abiding Citizen (Overture Films) – $7.3 mil; 2,764 theaters; $2,642 PT; $51.3 mil cume
4. Couples Retreat (Universal) – $6 mil; 3,026 theaters; $2,015 PT; $86.6 mil cume
5. Saw VI (Lionsgate) – $5.5 mil; 3,036 theaters; $1,831 PT; $22.8 mil cume
When Halloween falls on a weekend, it notoriously dampens the box office spirit since most people are out and about, so for This Is It to do as well as it did is pretty surprising. It isn’t, however, earth shattering, so time will tell if this two-week special run will generate the kind of box office the higher ups want it to. My guess is they’ll extend it.
As for this coming weekend, it’s a full slate with four major openers, including: The Cameron Diaz-James Marsden thriller The Box, which looks like an eerie Twilight Zone episode; the alien-abduction horror flick The Fourth Kind; the offbeat military comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats; and Disney’s A Christmas Carol, using performance-captured animation and 3D. I’m predicting that should win, being so close to Christmas and all. Here’s the trailer: