The This Is it Movie Bonanza
This is It, the musical documentary chronicling Michael Jackson’s last tour will be in theatres in about a month, and popular opinion backed with substantial facts, seems to point to the fact that the Kenny Ortega-directed movie is going to be doing gangbusters.
Fan anticipation is at mild-fever pitch, sparked by the MTV VMA’s teaser trailer, and this video below which shows a segment from the movie, of Jackson, introducing a new dance, The Penguin.
Media outlets reported that tickets for the movie (which will be on a limited run, but which may possibly be extended) went beyond expectations, and has, as anticipated by many observers, broken sales records:
Among the cities with the strongest sales are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and New York. Records were also set in Japan, where more than $1 million in tickets were sold on the first day they were available. In London, fans bought more than 30,000 tickets on the first day, eclipsing the advance interest in the “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” films, which were wildly popular in Britain. Record sales were also reported in Holland, Sweden, Belgium and New Zealand.
The poster is certainly eye-catching, with visual vignettes of Jackson at different stages of his career, encircled in one giant Michael.
The Los Angeles Time’s Pop and Hiss entertainment column reported that Sony, Jackson’s record label will be releasing a 2-disc CD of the same title in stores, starting Oct 26th on the international front, and in the United States and the rest of the Americas the following day.
MTV has confirmed that the single “This Is It” is going to be released on October 12.
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Movie Marketing and PR: Movie Premiere Photos Fame
Jessica Lowndes was among the celebrities who showed up to support the premiere of Fame.
(Chris Hatcher / PR Photos)
Debbie Allen who was the choreographer of the original Fame movie as well as the TV series based on the film, was all smiles at the premiere.
Kevin Tancharoen, the film’s director, came to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
Movie Marketing and PR: Movie Premiere Photos Surrogates
Bruce Willis and his wife Emma Heming at the premiere of Surrogates last night at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. And below with his daughter Rumer Willis.
Movie Marketing and PR: Movie Premiere Photos…. Whip It
Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page and Kristen Wiig hang out at the pemiere of Whip It in Toronto.
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure Gets Pre-Teen Appeal Help
Disney’s upcoming Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure movie is building some buzz already thanks to teen star Demi Lovato’s music video “Gift of a Friend”.
The “Sonny Without a Chance” star has the song featured on her Here We Go Again album, released this past August.
But Lovato wasn’t the only teen recruited for the affair. Fellow Disney starlet Selena Gomez of “The Wizards of Waverly Place” was also brought on board, as was other teen favorites as Jesse McCartney and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, among others.
The movie is set to be releaed on October 27th, while the soundtrack is going to hit stores about a month prior to.
Image Crayola Mom/Flicker
United Artists and Lake Shore Entertainment Launch Fame Movie Contest
Fame the remake of the 1980 performing arts school movie is hitting theaters later on this month (September 25th), and while moviegoers will be able to attend a prestigious performing arts school through, United Artists and Lake Shore Entertainment want movie fans to get on some sweepstake action too.
They’ve launched the Fame Us! Contest with tech giant LG Electronics.
The game’s rules are simple: users can submit videos of themselves, showcasing their own interpretation of the Fame song, and vye for a $50,000 prize as voted by other users. The video submission may be up to 2 minutes and as little as 30 seconds in length.
As an incentive for voters, Lake Shore, United Artists and LG are offering the opportunity for non-performing voters to win daily prizes (an LG model phone and in some cases shiny new home theatre systems).
Oh, and there’s a do-gooder aspect to the contest too: each vote counts as a donation to the Save the Music Foundation, although neither LG Electronics and Lake Shore Entertainment indicated how much the indicated donation would be.
Users also have the opportunity to download the new version of the Fame movie theme song.
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Michael Jackson’s This is It Trailer Sets the Stage for October Film Premiere
Segments from the trailer had been available on YouTube for almost a week before the full trailer premiered on MTV during the 2009 VMA Awards.
Made up of carefully-selected segments from rehearsal footage by Jackson’s choreographer and High School Musical director Kenny Ortega, the musical documentary is set to be released in theaters in October through Sony Films/Columbia Pictures
No other promotion could have topped showing the trailer in the middle of the MTV Awards, especially in part because the show itself featured a tribute to the singer, and nostalgic feelings for the musical extravaganzas (that Jackson is the essence of) of the past and fans’ appreciation for Jackson is at its height.
When the Nielsen ratings are released this week, I wouldn’t be surprised if this edition of the show were among their highest-rated. More good news for Columbia and Sony.
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Oprah, Mariah, Paula, Push Precious at the Toronto Int’l Film Festival
The Lee Daniels-produced and directed flick Precious based on the urban novel had its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, with Oprah Winfrey, a staunch supporter and backer on hand, as well as singer Mary J. Blige.
Pop star Mariah Carey who plays a teacher to the long-suffering title character in the movie was among the members of the cast who partook in a press conference at the film fest.
Here she is with the movie’s producer-director Lee Daniels. The movie’s title was previously Push, but after a title battle with the copyright holders of a science fiction film bearing the same name, the movie’s handlers tactfully changed the film’s title to Precious.