‘This Is It’: $20 Mil Opening for a Documentary Couldn’t Be Better

It’s all how you spin it, right?

Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” made $20 million worldwide opening on a Wednesday in October on the first night of the World Series. This is considered a tremendous success, not a disappointment. How it got labeled the latter is beyond me.

If “This Is It” makes $70 million domestically through Sunday night, believe me, Sony and AEG and Michael Jackson’s estate will be very happy. There’s no reason to think it won’t. The film has an across-the-board Cinemascope rating of A. Most of the reviews, except for one crazy one, are positive. THR’s Kirk Honeycutt lavished praise on it, and he’s tough, kids. If he likes it, you know it’s good.

A few days ago, one movie blog decided that “This Is It” should make $250 million in its first weekend. This is the usual craziness of bad or no reporting. If the movie makes just that domestically, and another $150 million abroad before its scheduled Jan. 20 DVD release, all parties will celebrate.

By the way, all the worldwide numbers aren’t in. The film opened in 10 more countries today. On Friday, record producer L.A. Reid is hosting a private A-list screening. There will be more of those.

As for the naysayers who claim that it doesn’t tell the whole Jackson story, this is what I say: You’re right. This is a behind-the-scenes look at performance. The rest of it — and there’s plenty — will be explored in detail later.