Michael Jackson Bigger Than New Moon, Miley? Yup

Hundreds of sellouts already reported for late pop star's This Is It concert movie

By Joal Ryan Oct 01, 2009 6:30 PMTags
Michael JacksonKevin Mazur/AEG via Getty Images

Edward Cullen has met his match: Michael Jackson.

Since going on sale Sunday, tickets for Jackson's This Is It have been selling hotter than, well, Robert Pattinson's vampire.

Fandango said the concert movie was its new top-seller, ousting The Twilight Saga: New Moon. MovieTickets.com said it had already recorded more than 550 sellouts. And to put a global point on it, Sony Pictures bragged about big business from Britain to Japan.

This Is It opens Oct. 28, if you don't count sneaks on Oct. 27. Sony says the movie, culled from rehearsals for the late Jackson's not-to-be London shows, will play only two weeks.

And if the limited-engagement line sounds familiar, then perhaps you've rushed to buy tickets to a concert movie before…

Last year, Disney billed Miley Cyrus' Best of Both Worlds show as a one-week-only event. Then the film scored a $31 million opening weekend, and one week turned into 15. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus became the top-grossing concert movie of all time.

So far.

While it's still early, This Is It is on track to top Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus. During its first three days of sales, Fandango said, Jackson's film outpaced Cyrus' first three days by a wide three-to-one margin.

The stat's a good reminder that even a pop phenom like Cyrus, or Pattinson, isn't the pop phenom.

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Michael Jackson, a life in pictures.