Michael Jackson’s This Is It wins weekend box office with $21.3 million
by bintangkecil on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 | Entertainment, News
Halloween audiences picked beats over blood this weekend, pushing “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” to the top spot, while horror phenomenon “Paranormal Activity” scored a strong second-place finish.
With a $21.3 million domestic gross, “This Is It” raised its worldwide total to a massive $101 million that easily breaks the record for a concert doc, though it falls far short of the $250 million that concert promoter AEG reportedly predicted.
Even so, the performance was good enough to convince distributor Sony (which acquired the pic for a mere $60 million) to announce that the concert pic will remain in theaters at least until Thanksgiving.
Still beating expectations in its third wide-release weekend, the sleeper hit “Paranormal Activity” dropped just 22 percent for a $16.5 million haul. At $84.8 million total after six weekends, the surprise smash is now the year’s highest grossing horror movie.
Rounding out the top five are holdovers “Law Abiding Citizen” ($7.3 million), “Couples Retreat,” ($6.1 million), and “Saw VI” ($5.6 million).
The weekend’s two other newbies both had lukewarm receptions in wide release: “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day” made $0.5 million at 68 theaters, while “Gentlemen Broncos” earned $10,000 at two sites.
