page_title: This Is It (concert residency)
section_title: Response
hierarchical_section_title: This Is It (concert residency) / Response
caption_attribution_description: O2 with Canary Wharf and City of London
context_page_description: This Is It was a planned concert residency by American pop singer Michael Jackson slated to take place at the O2 Arena, in London, between 2009 and 2010. However, the concerts never took place, as Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
  Jackson announced This Is It at a press conference in the O2 Arena, and said it would be his final series of concerts in London. AEG Live, the concert promoters, released a promotional video that used an entire commercial break when aired on ITV, setting a record for that network. Initially, only 10 concerts were announced, but following public demand, 40 more concerts were added. Ticket sales broke several records and Jackson's album sales increased following the announcement; AEG Live estimated that the first 10 dates alone would have earned Jackson approximately £50 million.
  In preparation for the concert series, Jackson had been collaborating with figures including fashion designer Christian Audigier, choreographer Kenny Ortega and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno.
context_section_description: Sales of Jackson's albums increased following the press conference. Overnight, sales of Off the Wall rose 200%, Bad rose 110%, Dangerous rose 165% and Thriller 25 rose 155%.
  Some websites offered early tickets, which the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents warned were fake. Jackson's website allowed fans to register early for a "pre-sale" draw. The website was not able to deal with the number of registrations—reportedly up to 16,000 applications a second. In the space of 24 hours, nearly a million people from around the world registered for pre-sale tickets, enough to fill the venue 50 times over. Tickets that had not even been printed were selling on auction website eBay for £300.
  The two-day pre-sale began on March 11, and 40 extra dates were added to meet high demand; five dates were reserved in their entirety for the public sale. More than 1.5 million fans caused two sites offering pre-sale tickets to crash within minutes of going online. In the space of four hours, 750,000 tickets were sold. Two million people tried to buy pre-sale tickets in the space of 18 hours. Veronica Schmidt of The Times said that "Michael Jackson has floored his critics", while organizers proclaimed it a "cultural phenomenon".
  Jackson was set to break the record for number of shows performed by an artist at a single venue, which had been set by Prince, who hosted a residency at the same arena for his 21 Nights in London: The Earth Tour concerts. According to Jackson's website, the following records were or would have been broken: "The biggest audience ever to see an artist in one city", "The greatest number of people to attend a series of arena shows", "The fastest ticket sales in history". Randy Phillips acknowledged that Jackson could have sold out even more dates, but this would have conflicted with other career plans. On March 13, the other 50% of seats for dates 1–45 and all the seats for dates 46–50 went on sale to the general public. Within four hours, all 50 dates had sold out. At this stage, the sales of King of Pop were up 400% and the sales of Thriller were up 200%. Tickets appeared on eBay for as much as £10,000.
caption: The O2 Arena, where the concerts would have been held
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