Michael Jackson’s Legacy, Two Years Later [Videos]

Saturday marked the second anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death at age 50. Like Elvis, Bob Marley, Notorious B.I.G. and Frank Sinatra before him, Jackson’s influence has grown since his untimely death on June 25, 2009. MTV took a look at the enduring appeal of MJ’s music, videos and imagery, which continue to fascinate fans across the globe thanks to a series of posthumous albums, a movie, video games and two upcoming Cirque du Soleil live shows:

• $72 million: Jackson’s posthumous concert film, “This Is It,” has grossed more than $72 million to date domestically and $189 million in foreign markets for a worldwide take over more than $261 million. It ranks as the No. 2 music documentary of all-time, behind Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never.” The film has also generated nearly $45 million in DVD sales in the United States.
• 16: In May, Jackson logged his first No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Dance/ Club Play Songs chart in 16 years with the latest single from his posthumous “Michael” album, “Hollywood Tonight.”
• 2: Number of posthumous albums that have been released since Michael’s death. Last year’s “Michael” has sold just over 510,000 copies to date, while the “This Is It” collection has moved nearly 1 million copies to date in the United States.
• 15,000: The number of videos submitted by fans since March for the crowd-sourced video for “Behind the Mask.” After they were edited down by a five-person team over two months, the resulting clip used submissions from more than 1,600 participants from 103 countries.
• 3 million: The amount of copies sold of the Ubisoft “Michael Jackson: The Experience” video game worldwide.
• $57 million: The reported cost of Cirque du Soleil’s traveling MJ show, “The Immortal World Tour,” slated to kick off on October 2nd.
• $1 billion: The reported amount the Jackson estate had generated by last June on the first anniversary of the singer’s death. The revenue was generated by a combination of music sales ($429 million), film/TV revenue ($392 million), music publishing ($130 million), licensing ($35 million) and a $31 million recording contract.
• $310 million: The amount of gross earnings reported by the executors of the estate in a December 2010 court filing detailing the progress made in paying off the $400 million in debt run up by Jackson during his lifetime.
• 16.1 million: Jackson has sold more than 16 million digital tracks since June 28, 2009, the first sales week following his passing. To put that in perspective, from the time Nielsen began counting digital tracks in 2004 until the week before Jackson’s death, the singer had sold just over 8.1 million digital tracks, a figure that has doubled in just the past two years.
• 2013: The projected launch for a second, non-touring Cirque show celebrating Jackson. The as-yet-untitled show is slated to open in the spring of 2013 at a new theater being built at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
• $25 million to $50 million: How much Jackson’s estate takes in on an annual basis thanks to his stake in the half-million-song Sony/ATV catalog, which includes titles by Elvis, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Beyoncé and Bob Dylan.

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[Via:  MTV, Youtube]