Michael Jackson's This Is It Budget

What Is the Budget of Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)?

Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009), directed by Kenny Ortega and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures banner, was produced on a reported budget of $60,000,000. The figure represents what AEG Live paid Sony for global theatrical and home entertainment rights to roughly one hundred hours of rehearsal footage shot at Los Angeles' Staples Center and the Forum in Inglewood between March and June 2009 in preparation for the singer's planned fifty-night residency at London's O2 Arena.

Following Jackson's death on June 25, 2009, AEG Live, The Michael Jackson Company, and the Estate of Michael Jackson negotiated the rights deal with Sony in a matter of weeks, with the assembled documentary shot, edited, and delivered to theaters in roughly four months from acquisition. The budget covered the rights advance, the entire post-production pipeline, and the international theatrical marketing campaign that supported a simultaneous October 28, 2009 release in twenty-six countries.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The $60,000,000 was distributed across several documentary-specific cost areas:

• Rights Acquisition Fee: The largest single line item. AEG Live paid an estimated $50,000,000 minimum guarantee to acquire and assemble the rehearsal footage, paid largely to the Jackson Estate, AEG Live (which had financed the original concert production), and Sony for distribution.
• Post-Production: Editor Don Brochu cut roughly one hundred hours of HD footage from multiple rehearsal cameras into a 111-minute feature on a compressed schedule, with Kenny Ortega supervising throughout July, August, and September 2009.
• Sound and Music: Music director Michael Bearden's rehearsal arrangements were remixed and mastered for theatrical Dolby Digital and 5.1 surround presentation, with additional sweetening to convert raw rehearsal-room audio into a concert-quality theatrical mix.
• Marketing: Sony spent an estimated $30,000,000 on global marketing for the October 28, 2009 launch, including international press tours, premieres in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo, and a complete media buy across television, print, and digital channels.
• Theatrical Mastering and Delivery: DCP creation, key delivery, and prints for the simultaneous twenty-six-country release, including subtitling and dubbing for major non-English markets.
• Two-Week Theatrical Window: Sony booked the film with an unusual limited two-week run guarantee from exhibitors, a strategy that drove urgency and concentrated grosses into the opening days.

How Does This Is It's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $60,000,000, This Is It sits at the top tier of concert and music documentaries:

• Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011): Budget approximately $13,000,000 | Worldwide $99,000,000. Jon M. Chu directed the Paramount-released documentary, which set the template for 3D concert documentaries but cost roughly one fifth of This Is It.
• Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008): Budget approximately $7,000,000 | Worldwide $70,624,242. The Disney 3D concert film established the limited-window theatrical strategy that This Is It later expanded to a wider global footprint.
• Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012): Budget approximately $12,000,000 | Worldwide $32,500,000. Paramount Insurge released the 3D documentary, which underperformed despite a comparable cost structure.
• Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991): Budget approximately $4,000,000 | Worldwide $29,000,000. Miramax distributed Alek Keshishian's documentary, which redefined the form on a fraction of This Is It's budget.

Michael Jackson's This Is It Box Office Performance

This Is It opened October 28, 2009 to $23,234,394 in North American ticket sales on its opening Wednesday across 3,481 theaters. Sony's simultaneous twenty-six-country international launch added $25,000,000 on opening day, making it the highest-grossing global launch ever for a music documentary. The two-week limited theatrical window ultimately stretched to four weeks in many international markets due to demand.

• Production Budget: $60,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $30,000,000
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $90,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $261,183,588 ($72,091,016 domestic + $189,092,572 international)
• Net Return: approximately $171,000,000 (gross minus total investment)
• ROI: approximately $2.90 returned for every $1 invested

The film became the highest-grossing concert film and music documentary of all time, a record it held for more than a decade. International box office accounted for roughly 72 percent of the total, reflecting Jackson's exceptionally strong global fanbase. Sony recovered its acquisition cost in the opening weekend alone.

Home entertainment release on January 26, 2010 added an estimated $200,000,000 in DVD and Blu-ray sales globally, with the soundtrack album going double platinum and selling more than five million copies worldwide. The expanded estate-administered revenue stream included subsequent international re-releases, broadcast licenses, and a 2012 Cirque du Soleil partnership that further amortized the original rights cost.

Michael Jackson's This Is It Production History

Rehearsals for the planned This Is It London residency began in March 2009 at Center Staging in Burbank and moved to the Forum in Inglewood in April and finally to Staples Center in June. Kenny Ortega, who had directed Jackson's HIStory and Dangerous tours, served as the residency's overall director and choreographer. The rehearsals were filmed in HD on multiple cameras under standard contracts for documentation and potential later use as a making-of or behind-the-scenes feature for AEG.

Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication on June 25, 2009 at his rented Holmby Hills mansion, twelve days before the residency was scheduled to open at the O2 Arena. AEG Live held the master tapes and within weeks had negotiated with Sony for the rights deal. Kenny Ortega was reattached as director of the documentary edit, working with editor Don Brochu and music director Michael Bearden in a compressed July-to-September 2009 post schedule.

Filming took place entirely in Los Angeles, with the rehearsal footage shot at the Forum in Inglewood and Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. California's mature film and television infrastructure supported the rapid post-production timeline, with sound mixing at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City and final color and conform completed at Technicolor's Hollywood facility.

Several controversies followed the release. The Jackson family was split on whether to cooperate, with mother Katherine Jackson initially supportive and brothers Randy and Jermaine publicly questioning AEG's motivations. Conrad Murray, the physician later convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death, was visible in some footage but was largely excised from the final edit. The film was nominated for ten Guinness World Records.

Awards and Recognition

This Is It won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie at the 2010 ceremony. It was nominated for two Critics' Choice Awards including Best Documentary, losing to The Cove. The Visual Effects Society nominated the production for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program. The film also won the Saturn Award for Best DVD/Blu-ray Special Edition Release.

At the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010, the soundtrack album won three nominations and the title track 'This Is It' (a previously unreleased Jackson composition completed posthumously) was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance. The film holds five Guinness World Records including highest-grossing music documentary, highest-grossing concert film, and biggest simultaneous global theatrical release for a documentary.

Critical Reception

Michael Jackson's This Is It received broadly positive reviews. The film holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 207 critic reviews with a critical consensus that 'For fans of the King of Pop, This Is It will be a poignant reminder of his greatness; for skeptics, his sheer talent is undeniable.' On Metacritic, the film scored 67 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reviews. The film does not carry a CinemaScore grade as the survey company does not score documentaries.

Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, writing 'Michael Jackson was a genius. To watch this film is to understand that.' Variety's Todd McCarthy called the rehearsal footage 'startlingly fresh and immediate.' The New York Times' A.O. Scott was more measured, noting the documentary's commercial intent but praising Jackson's evident vitality. The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt described it as 'the closest the world will ever come to the show that wasn't.'