HALLOWEEN CAME early at the Vue Cinema in Liffey Valley, Dublin, where an estimated 350 diehard Michael Jackson fans gathered for the Irish premiere of This Is It, writes KEVIN CASEY, in Liffey Valley, Dublin
Devotees to the late, great King of Pop came for the 4am show in fitting attire.
Premiering simultaneously in 17 cities for a limited run of two weeks, fans from LA to Hong Kong were also seeing This Is Itfor the first time in their respective time zones.
Distributor Sony Corp said the film had taken in $2.2 million (€1.49 million) in ticket sales in North American screenings by yesterday evening.
At Liffey Valley, Louth native Alan O’Neill (37) was tempted out of his bed for the screening.
“It’s a unique opportunity. It’s on at the same time all over the world. It’ll never happen again.”
Boston-born Molly Shea (16), living in Co Laois, summed it up in one word: “Amazing . . . I loved the way he reworked all his tracks and modernised them.”
Margaret Ryan saw the great man live in Cork many moons ago and ended the day a born-again Jackson fan. “I’ll be recommending it to everybody. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see greatness. That’s no exaggeration.”
All of the fans thought he looked fit and well in the movie. “I think it really raises questions about the people surrounding him,” said Ayrene Katz, a Ugandan living in Clonsilla, Dublin. “His dancing was amazing. He had a lot of life in him. I’m 22 and I wouldn’t be able to do half the stuff he did. He seemed real normal, so the people around him must not have been his real friends.”
The film consists of out-takes from rehearsals for Jackson’s comeback gigs in London, which never happened. Jackson’s commitment was evidently not in doubt.
“He wanted it done 100 per cent and he gave it 100 per cent,” said Lorraine Meaney (27), of Finglas. She and her brother David (19) had tickets for the ill-fated London gigs. “In a way at least we got to see the concert, but we’d rather not have seen it and he’d still be here.”
After a star-studded opening in Los Angeles on Tuesday night attended by four of Jackson’s brothers, and premieres in many other cities, the film went on show worldwide. In Britain, Odeon, the biggest cinema chain, reported strong sales of 100,000 as of yesterday morning.
In central Taipei, a handful of Jackson impersonators danced to entertain the hundreds of people queuing to see the documentary, and in Beijing, several fans said the movie was their last chance to see the star in action.
While most of the reaction from fans to the film was positive, a small number raised objections to This Is It, which they said concealed the state of Jackson's health in his final days and exploited the singer, who leaves behind three children.
Sony Corp’s Columbia Pictures bought the film rights from concert promoter AEG Live for a reported $60 million.
Jackson died suddenly on June 25th in Los Angeles at the age of 50 after suffering cardiac arrest.
– (Additional reporting Reuters)