Greg Ellwood states:
Many of Jackson's fans showed up last night to pay tribute to their fallen idol at late night and midnight screenings, but it only resulted in $2.2 million in ticket sales. In comparison, summer blockbusters Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen found $16 million and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set the record for midnight screenings with $22.2 million. Obviously, there is a hug gap there between the summer releases and an October opener like "This Is It," but considering the hype it's actually a tad disappointing.
This Is It could do anywhere from $10-15 million today, but the question will be how it plays through the Halloween weekend. That may make the $60 million plus weekend some were predicting somewhat of a reach.
Whatever criticism made on this by other media critics, Michael Jackson has proven that his charismatic appeal is still enigmatic though he had gone back to his proper order. It is not a matter how the show made money. It is a matter of how we let King of Pop Michael Jackson in our memory. It is irreplaceable. That just a material crap of thing.
