News

Michael Jackson's Estate Made $1 Billion in Past Year

9:11 a.m. · June 22, 2010 · by Nick Neyland

It’s been a year since Michael Jackson’s death, and while various tributes are being mounted to mark the occasion, the singer’s estate is still raking in the cash. Billboard is reporting that around 24 million Jackson albums have been sold since his passing in June 2009, and at least $1 billion in revenue has been generated in total.

Some of the other figures triggering such a haul are 39.4 million individual song downloads, 4.5 million ringtones, and a sizable chunk of change from the This Is It movie. If you think that’s impressive, there’s more to come, as the Jackson memorial bandwagon is really only just getting started: a videogame and a Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil show are just two forthcoming cash cows currently stampeding into view.

Amazingly, Jackson’s estate is also counting the money generated by those ill-fated shows in London that the singer was preparing for at the time of his death. It turns out that many fans kept the tickets as mementos instead of applying for refunds, causing Jackson to make around $6.5 million for concerts that he didn’t even play. Nice work if you can get it.

[via The Guardian]