LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson’s much-hyped concert movie reigned at the worldwide box office, but its performance in North America was hardly a thriller. “This Is It,” composed mostly of rehearsal footage recorded in the weeks before the “King of Pop’s” death in June, earned an estimated $101m in the five days since opening globally on Wednesday, distributor Columbia Pictures said.

Moviegoers in the United States and Canada contributed $32.5m. In the days leading up to its opening, industry forecasters had said it could earn at least $40m. Columbia said it had hoped for an opening in the $30m to $40m range. “This has always, always been a worldwide play,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Columbia’s parent Sony Corp. “We’re very happy with the results domestically, but ecstatic with the worldwide.” Top territories included Japan with $10.4m, Britain with $7.6m, Germany with $6.3m, France with $5.8m, Australia with $3.6m and China with $3.2m.

Rival studios, perhaps looking to put Sony in the hot seat, had been particularly bullish about the film. One executive predicted the film could make $660m globally during its limited two-week run — $260m domestically and $400m internationally.

Columbia had shied away from issuing global forecasts because of a dearth of comparable concert films. The record for such movies is held by “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus — Best of Both Worlds,” which earned $65m domestically last year.

The film’s prospects were not helped by Halloween, which fell on a Saturday for the first time since 1998, siphoning off a large swathe of potential North American moviegoers on the biggest night of the week. Columbia said it extended the planned two-week limited run in North America through Thanksgiving.

The studio paid Jackson’s estate and closely held concert promoter AEG about $60m for the rights, but will deduct the production costs from its tab. As for box office revenues, which are usually split evenly with movie theater owners, Sony will share its haul with the estate and AEG according to a complex, undisclosed formula.

Columbia’s sister company, Sony Music, has done much better with Jackson’s recordings. His albums have sold more than 5.7 million copies this year in the United States, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. For the traditional three-day period, beginning Friday, “This Is It” earned $21.3m.

Last weekend’s North American champ, Paramount Pictures’ micro-budget horror flick “Paranormal Activity,” slipped to No. 2 with $16.5m in its sixth weekend, taking its total to $84.8m. Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc.