This+Is+It

A recent article by Brookes Barnes entitled//“This is It”: No. 1, But Still Disappointing,// has pointed out a recent upset for Sony. Obviously, from the title, this article was about the outcome of the supposedly highly anticipated, concert film depicting the preparation iconic Michael Jackson. Because Michael passed away so close to his premiere date, there were 120 hours of recorded practice time that Sony was able to manipulate into a movie. The idea definitely seemed like a good one. Regardless of all of the court cases and accusations, Michael could definitely put on a spectacular show, even at age 50. Although competing with the seasonal thrillers including, “Paranormal Activity,” the Michael Jackson film grossed $32.5 million over the first 5 days. Although this seems like a high number, it is not as high as expected. According to Brooks Barnes “Sony had done everything it could to promote the picture as a must-see event, fanning interest by releasing it with a stunt - a supposedly limited theatrical run of only two weeks - and by generating enormous news-media coverage by staging 17 premieres around the world.” Also pretty much every award show on MTV in the past 2-3 months has been geared towards promoting this movie. The toughest part for a movie staff is getting that type of publicity. When you have this much publicity for a movie, and Michael Jackson as your star, $32.5 million over 5 days in America does not seem like a lot (Barnes, 11/1/2009). People like myself are partly to blame for this. I am a huge Michael Jackson fan and watch every trailer for this movie intently. Have I seen the film you ask? No. With a combination of the lack of extra funds, and being busy around this time, I have not contributed to the $32.5 million. This does not mean I am not interested. This does not mean I will not see it, but I have not seen it yet. Now although people like me added to make it a disappointment in America, it was expected that the majority of the money grossed from this film would come from overseas. In other parts of the world, this film made $68.5 million in the first 5 days making the grand total $101 million across the world. When including future DVD sales, this will still give a hefty profit to Sony. As unfortunate as it maybe I would really hope to think that Sony didn’t see dollar signs when the death of Michael Jackson was announced. When the first thoughts of a movie came to mind I would like to think that they did it to immortalize Michael. According to Baran, a lot of times movies are made in order to create a “dream factor” or “movie magic.” When I watch the film I am confident that Sony did a good job in capturing the magic that Michael had (Baran 2010, pg 155). **Works Cited** Baran, Stanly. __Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture.__ McGraw-Hill, 2010. Pg 155 Barnes, Brookes. //This is It: No.1, But Still Dissappointing.// New York Times, Published November 1, 2009 []