NEW YORK (AP) — According to studio estimates, late-night screenings of “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” have earned $2.2 million at the North America box office.

Distributor Sony calls those results “unprecedented” for a Tuesday in October. The film chronicles Jackson’s concert preparations for what would have been 50 comeback concerts in London.

“This Is It” opened in 99 countries and expanded its release Wednesday. Sony has already called Wednesday box office numbers “explosive” and says matinees alone have doubled Tuesday night’s haul.

The film show Jackson preparing for a marathon concert stand in London that never happened.

The pop star died in June at age 50.

Comment Policy

The World welcomes your comments about stories, and we encourage a robust dialogue on this site. All comments must meet reasonable standards of decency and civility.

Please follow these basic rules:

• No defamatory comments about individuals or businesses.
• No deliberately false information.
• No obscenity or racially offensive language.
• No harassment, verbal abuse, threats or personal attacks.
• No information that invades another person's privacy.
• No business solicitations or charitable solicitations.

Comments that violate these standards will not be posted. Users with repeated violations may be banned from future posting.

Comments will be approved throughout the day during business hours. After hours and weekend comments may not appear until the following business day. It may take a couple of hours before comments are approved.

The World generally does not edit comments, but we reserve the right to edit any comment that does not meet our standards.