The PG-rated film grossed an additional $12.7M overseas making for a $20.1M worldwide first-day tally.

Debuting in 99 territories around the world, overseas sales were led by the United Kingdom with $1.94M, France with $1.37M, Japan with $1.16M, Germany with $1.05M, and China with $730,000. Sony unleashed the doc with about 15,000 prints worldwide.

The domestic opening day figure was well below the $12M that industry sources at other studios were projecting this morning based on early data.

The Jackson pic has earned strong reviews from critics and it scored an impressive A grade from CinemaScore so the studio hopes that positive word-of-mouth will carry it going forward into the weekend when moviegoers have more time off.

While This Is It has an unorthodox opening week ahead of it with Halloween likely to soften multiplex traffic on Saturday, it could generate a domestic launch in the neighborhood of $30M over five days based on the opening day take.

11:15 AM ET - The official opening day gross for Michael Jackson's This Is It will be reported by Sony later today, but early estimates from industry sources put the figure in the vicinity of $12M from 3,481 theaters for a one-day average of roughly $3,500. The figure includes sales from the first shows that began on late Tuesday night after the film made its premiere in Los Angeles.

Rarely do event films open on a Wednesday in October so comparisons are difficult to make, but the figure is undoubtedly a strong one for this time of year. The biggest concert documentary hit in recent years was 2008's Hannah Montana pic which bowed at number one with $31.1M in its first weekend. However, that film launched on a Friday, had special $15 tickets, was presented in 3D, played in one-fifth of the number of theaters, and skewed mostly to young girls so comparing it to This Is It would not reveal much. From 683 sites, it averaged a scorching $45,561 - a figure Jackson was never expected to touch.

Looking at recent tentpoles that debuted midweek, June's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed a record $62M on its debut Wednesday accounting for 31% of its $200.1M five-day launch. A few weeks later, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's opening day of $58.2M made up 37% of the Wednesday-to-Sunday tally of $158M.

With its fall release at a time when all students are in school during the week, This Is It should see its first-day take account for a smaller share of the five-day figure. All these films played to fans committed to hitting the multiplexes right away, but summer moviegoers are more able to act upon those desires.

2004's The Passion of the Christ also had a large built-in following, although much of the business came from the film's controversy, and opened on a Wednesday outside of summer like Jackson's film. Its $26.6M Wednesday gross represented only 21% of its eventual $125.2M haul over five days.

This Is It should play to a ratio in between Potter and Christ's putting it on course to finish the extended opening weekend period somewhere in the neighborhood of $50M by Sunday night. While that would not match some of the outlandish forecasts that have been tossed around in media reports, it would still be a very impressive performance for a concert film.

Check BoxOfficeGuru.com throughout the week for continued daily updates on the opening of This Is It.

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