Did Michael Jackson's This Is It Hit…or Miss?

Concert documentary moonwalks to estimated $7.4 million opening day; film even bigger overseas

No, Michael Jackson wasn't Batman or Miley Cyrus. But more important, he wasn't the Jonas Brothers.

Jackson's This Is It scored a $7.4 million opening day, Sony Pictures estimated today.

Among concert films, the take puts This Is It right behind the eye-popping opening day of Cyrus' Best of Both Worlds show and safely ahead of the Jonas' expectations-game loser, The 3D Concert Experience. 

Comparisons between the three movies are far from perfect, not the least of which is because neither the Cyrus or Jonas Brothers film starred the world's biggest pop star in his final farewell.  

So, given those high standards, how did This Is It measure up?

"This is kind of in line with what I thought," said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Which is another way of saying Dergarabedian didn't think This Is It, despite dominant advance-ticket sales, was ever going to be the musical version of Titanic. Much less The Dark Knight.

"You're not going to get a $40 million opening day. It's not going to be Dark Knight," Dergarabedian said. "It's not a genre movie."

Overall, This Is It grossed $20.1 million worldwide Wednesday, putting its studio already one-third the way home to covering its $60 million investment in the rehearsal footage of the late Jackson's never-to-be London concerts.

The studio was said to be expecting a strong weekend—although Dergarabedian doubted This Is It would have a Cyrus-big, $30 million weekend—and a strong overall run.

Right now, that run is only slated to last two weeks. But Hollywood tends to be flexible on such deadlines. As long as your film is more Cyrus than Jonas Brothers.