This Is It

Director Kenny Ortega, who was also a collaborator of Michael Jackson's This Is It London concerts, used raw rehearsal footage to hurry through a half-documentary, half-concert film in memorial of the late King of Pop. But its screening in China is another story. First, fans sent thousands of petitions to China's movie authority to have the film shown here. Their requests were answered, and officials quickly censored and cleared the movie for release, in addition to the 20 foreign movies quota China allows each year.

After all that, revenues fell short of Sony Picture's expectations of more than 100 million yuan (US$14.64 million), pulling in just 48 million yuan (US$7 million – actually good for a documentary film in China). Still, fans honored their idol by hosting movie premieres in 14 cities, watching the movie more than 50 times, singing and dancing in the screening rooms, applauding after every song, and even kissing the screens. In Chengdu, a cinema manager had to send security guards into a screening room to make sure the floor did not collapse under the dancing feet.

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