Raise your hand if you were actually gullible enough to believe “Michael Jackson: This Is It” would only be in theaters for two weeks.
Yeah, nobody’s raising their hands, are they? You’re very wise people.
If you want a full taste of how ridiculous some of the hyperbole about the film is, take a look at this press release masked as a news story. I know publicists who would be ashamed to engage in this kind of hyperbole.
I’ve found the coverage of the “This Is It” box office results interesting. All box office predictions I read last week had the film making considerably more than the $32.5 million it’s made so far. That’s barely ahead of the Miley Cyrus concert film from last year, and Jackson’s movie has almost five times the number of prints in circulation.
Yet news stories consistently repeat a figure of $100 million worldwide. Someone at Sony – the company that paid dearly for the “This Is It” footage – is working overtime. Worldwide grosses are rarely a big part of any movie story – unless publicists insist on it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:10 am
With all of the free TV coverage Tim, why would you have to pay to see that movie? Don’t studios pump up the numbers to get people to go see it thinking, “Well, ten million people went to see it, it must not suck.”
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:32 am
They said the same thing about ‘Krush Groove’ and look what happened…oh, wait…yeah…
November 4th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I am not a fan, but I do respect and admire his God-given talents. I actually did enjoy the movie and would see it again. It is a shame that so many people hate this man, even after he is dead and gone.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
The Metsch family finally saw “This Is It” last Saturday night at a jammed theater. Wow. What a movie. Fantastic. After it was over, Mrs. Metsch leaned over and asked, “Did he look like a man about to die?” Nope. Not at all. Jacko still had “it” … the voice, the dancing, the charisma. I’m pretty sure the 50 dates in London would’ve led to a successful world tour.