Los Angeles - Two weeks before the release of the Michael Jackson concert movie This Is It, online ticket retailers said Thursday that 1,600 US shows had already been sold out. The high demand at the online sites Fandango and Movietickets.com put the film on a par with other eagerly awaited shows like the Twilight sequel New Moon, and look set to make the film the best- selling concert movie of all time.
The 112-minute documentary was cobbled together by concert promoter AEG from around 100 hours of rehearsal footage shot when Jackson was preparing for his 50-date comeback engagement that was to begin in London. Jackson died aged 50 from a drug overdose on June 25 in Los Angeles, days before he was set to leave to start the sold-out run.
The film will be released in the US and around the world on October 28.
Influential Hollywood columnist Nikki Finke quoted sources at AEG as saying that early tracking numbers indicated that the film could take in as much as 250 million dollars in its first five days. That would put it above the current record holder for the best movie opening of all time: The Dark Knight, which earned 203 million dollars in its first five days.
