“This Is It” first day box office tops $20 million

The Michael Jackson movie “This Is It” earned $20.1 million at worldwide box offices on its first day in theaters as fans around the globe turned out in strong numbers, a Columbia Pictures spokesman said on Thursday.

The ticket sales broke down to $7.4 million in the United States and Canada, and another $12.7 million internationally with United Kingdom box offices ringing up just under $2 million and French sales of about $1.4 million, said the movie studio.

Columbia Pictures is a unit of The Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures Entertainment media group.