Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” companion album — really just an album of hits — sold a little over 200,000 copies last week and went gold. That means it’s sold over 500,000 copies in two weeks.

The really weird thing is that another greatest hits album from Jackson, “Number Ones,” sold about 33,000 copies, too. Are people just buying and rebuying the same songs? Hey, why not?

Meanwhile, some interesting news from the live performance front: Cirque du Soleil is heavily courting the Jackson estate for a Las Vegas-style show featuring Michael’s music. The Canadian-based company is said to be working hard to convince all the parties that they can do for Michael what they did for the Beatles with the “Love” show at the Mirage Hotel.

The money involved is said to be astronomical.

Right now, Cirque du Soleil is prepping an Elvis Presley show, “Viva Elvis,” which will start performances next month at the ARIA Hotel in Las Vegas. Once that show is off the ground, the Jackson estate will confer with the Cirque folks. Meantime, AEG Live is also hoping to get its “This Is It” show, featured in the movie, on tour in some way as well.

Michael Jackson’s father, Joseph, has been dealt a legal blow — by his own wife!

Katherine Jackson’s attorney, Adam Streisand, has confirmed for me that his client no longer objects to the permanent appointment of their son’s executors. Katherine Jackson will now agree to John Branca and John McClain running Michael’s estate.

Since Katherine and Michael’s children are the only named heirs to Michael’s estate, it’s now expected the judge, Mitchell Beckloff, will make his final approvals.

This pretty much undercuts the crazy and lengthy objection Joseph Jackson has filed with the court to overturn Michael’s will and oust the executors. It’s poetic justice that Joseph Jackson has been undone by his own wife. Michael must be smiling in heaven.

Streisand, in an e-mail, did tell me that Katherine is not, however, objecting to her husband getting an allowance from the estate.

First Joe Jackson wanted Michael’s will thrown out.

Then he wanted an allowance from the executors.

Now he’s saying that the will is fake, and that Michael’s executor, John Branca, is a bad guy who should be removed. Jackson is using Brian Oxman, the attorney who claimed in a lawsuit that  Michael owed him $1.25 million, and who was fired by Thomas Mesereau from the defense team in Michael’s 2005 trial because he was sleeping in open court.

Jackson senior doesn’t seem to get it, but I do since I was there. Michael fired Branca as his attorney in February 2003 after the uproar over the “Living with Michael Jackson” documentary. Jackson took his business to a guy named David LeGrand, who was the choice of Michael’s business partner at the time, Marc Schaffel. It was more or less the beginning of the end for Michael, his slide into legal oblivion. After LeGrand, Jackson fell into the clutches of the Nation of Islam, followed by a series of lawyers and managers. It wasn’t until right before he died last June that he re-hired Branca in an effort to right his sinking ship.

To say Joe Jackson doesn’t know what he’s talking about is an understatement. He’s also accusing Branca of trying to harm Alvin Malnik, Jackson’s confidant and co-manager from 2001 through 2003, with the Justice Department. Malnik, who tried everything to keep Michael out of trouble until he was replaced by the Nation of Islam, actually worked with Branca to keep Michael afloat during that perilous time. Of course, Joe Jackson would actually know none of this because he had little to no contact with Michael and no knowledge of his business affairs.

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Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” has actually hit $185 million worldwide and will keep going past Thanksgiving, sources tell me.

“It’s conceivable that it’s on its way to $250 million,” says a source.

So it’s all good, with the companion album from Sony Music expected to hit the 500,000 mark.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, unbeknownst to anyone, Michael’s kids got some R & R and fun time. They went to the Lakers game on Friday night with AEG’s Randy Phillips, nanny Grace Rwaramba (yes, she’s baaack!), and two of Tito Jackson’s kids.

Prince, Paris, and Blanket got to see Kobe Bryant score 41 points in the Lakers win, and no one bothered them. I’m told they also spent some time at the pinball arcade next to the Staples Center. How did they get away with it? “They used AEG security instead of the Jacksons,” a source tells me. “And they wore normal clothes.” Nice.

Now — as far as the kids seeing “This Is It“– they have not seen the movie yet. One attempt was made to bring them to a theater, but paparazzi caught on. The field trip was aborted.

And the kids’ status: “They seem to be in good shape,” says a source. Still, this week, as I reported a few days ago — Debbie Rowe will ask the family court to enforce her custody/visitation agreement.

Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” had a big night last night — $4.1 million for its second Friday. It finished fourth on Friday night, ahead of Cameron Diaz in “The Box.” Not bad. For the weekend, “This Is It” should wind up with $7.2 million U.S. That will bring it to a total — with worldwide counted in– between $126 million and $130 million. Jackson moon walks away with easily the highest-grossing documentary and/or concert film in history. A total of $250 million through Thanksgiving weekend isn’t an unreasonable expectation now. That’s exactly what Sony and AEG hoped for. It was just the miscalculations of some blogs that got the message mixed up.

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Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” did better than anyone knew.

When Sony releases weekend box office figures today, sources say the Kenny Ortega directed concert film/doc will have done $34.5 million for the period of Tuesday night through Sunday.

That makes the total worldwide boxoffice closer to $105 million. “This Is It” is the most successful concert film ever.

So much for all the negative spin over the weekend. Indeed, the amount of it was truly puzzling. Most regular feature films would be considered “monster hits” if they’d done this well in five days.

Poor Michael Jackson. This was all he ever wanted.

On Sunday, I’m told, the movie was screened for Academy voters. They loved it, apparently, giving “This Is It” a standing ovation. But I wouldn’t get too excited. The film missed the documentary deadline for the Oscars. And it’s unlikely it will get a Best Picture nomination, despite the fervor of the Oscar blogs. A Golden Globe nomination for Comedy/Musical is more likely. And maybe a Best Song nomination for Jackson’s Paul Anka title track.

Just as this column predicted — Michael Jackson’s “This Is It’s” two-week run has been extended through Thanksgiving. I told you back on October 23 that it could get a one or two-week extension.

So far, worldwide, Sony puts the boxoffice take at $101 million. The non-U.S. take is $68.5 million. The domestic take is $32. 5 million. As I reported last night, “This Is It” has knocked off every competitor in the documentary and concert categories for all-time boxoffice.

The hilarious part reading elsewhere is that it’s either a hit or a flop or both. Some people can’t make up their minds. It’s easy to see by these numbers that “This Is It” is a hit. Sony and AEG Live got this exactly right.

Now, of course, the next step is for AEG to open the show in Las Vegas, with Kenny Ortega and the cast. There’s been some talk of a Cirque du Soleil rendering. But I think this is a mistake. Fans will want to see the live version of the movie. And Cirque du Soleil is way over saturated right now. Plus, they have  the Beatles’ “Love” show. I think if Paul McCartney catches wind of it, he’ll convince the Cirque folks to stay away from Michael Jackson. There’s still a lot of soreness on that subject. Whether Michael is dead or alive, the Beatles songs are not owned by McCartney because of him.

Saturday night: Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” –  is it a hit or a flop?

Let’s put it this way. As a documentary, it’s on track to be the third-largest-grossing doc in history. It will finish this weekend in the $30 million-plus category. That puts it behind Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911″ and “Earth.” At No. 3, it will be ahead of Moore’s other films, as well as Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Madonna’s “Truth or Dare.”

Forget about highest-grossing weekends, or Wednesdays in October. In the end, only the total number will matter.

As a music concert film, “This Is It” slides into second place, all time, right behind “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.” No. 3 would be a film about the Jonas Brothers, which made just less than $20 million total.

I’d say “This Is It” is a hit, based on those numbers. It could finish this weekend with between $30 million and $32 million domestically. Internationally, the number could turn out to be equal.

I will say that one of Sony’s biggest mistakes was not showing the film to the press in advance. The only word-of-mouth they built was on supposition. Instead of trusting that they had something good, the studio acted out of fear. The result was that this reviewer, like so many, had to write the review while watching the film. The reviews came out as the film arrived, without any quotes or anything to prime the part of the public that was skeptical or didn’t care.

Meantime, Sony Music predicts that the “This Is It” CD sold around 300,000 copies in its first week. The numbers come in on Monday. Not bad considering it only has two new tracks on it and consists otherwise of greatest hits that have already been sold and resold twice in the last four months.

The “This Is It” DVD will hit stores Jan. 20, just in case anyone’s interested in the actual date instead of guessing.

It’s all how you spin it, right?

Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” made $20 million worldwide opening on a Wednesday in October on the first night of the World Series. This is considered a tremendous success, not a disappointment. How it got labeled the latter is beyond me.

If “This Is It” makes $70 million domestically through Sunday night, believe me, Sony and AEG and Michael Jackson’s estate will be very happy. There’s no reason to think it won’t. The film has an across-the-board Cinemascope rating of A. Most of the reviews, except for one crazy one, are positive. THR’s Kirk Honeycutt lavished praise on it, and he’s tough, kids. If he likes it, you know it’s good.

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Dr. Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson’s long time dermatologist, is determined to embarrass him today. Yes, Michael is dead, but his movie, “This Is It,” is opening to rave reviews. What can Dr. Klein do to steal the spotlight?

Well, he sued Michael yesterday for just under $50,000. Klein says Michael racked up that balance with him between March 23rd and June 22, 2009. Procedures were mostly facial things — Restalyne, suntanning, Botox, that sort of thing.

It’s interesting to note that Dr. Klein — for whom Debbie Rowe (they no longer speak) once worked, and who set up the birth of Blanket, Michael’s third child — charged Jackson a grotesque $5,000 for an unscheduled weekend appointment and $7,500 for another.

The purpose of the lawsuit does seem to be to reveal a laundry list of Michael’s treatments. Klein could have filed last summer, or waited until after “This Is It” was released — or even better, wrote off the amount since Jackson kept him in business for years. But greed is greed, and Klein picked yesterday to get maximum exposure. As Chrissie Hynde sings so brilliantly, “You know who your friends are.”

Now that Klein has filed suit, I do hope the Jackson executors file a complaint against him with the California Medical Board. Those fees seem usurious. The board might also look at the drugs Klein was giving Michael including Lantoprost, which is opthalmic — meaning for eye doctors, not dermatologists, to prescribe.