This Is It raised its domestic total to $32.5 million. It pulled in $68.5 million overseas, including $10.4 million in Japan, $6.3 million in Germany, $5.8 million in France, and $3.2 million in China.

This Is It captures Jackson in rehearsals in the weeks before his death in June.

"They bet $60 million on this and got $101 million in just five days," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It was a gamble and a bet that paid off."

Resurrecting dead poets

Walter Skold, founder of the Dead Poets Society of America, just finished visiting the graves of 150 poets in 23 states. Skold boasts that he set a literary land-speed record of 1.66 gpd (graves per day) over the course of his 15,000-mile journey.

While his graveside poetry readings - and occasional cemetery sleepovers - evoke the macabre, Skold insists his intentions are honorable.

"It's . . . a way to honor our literary forebears and to historically resurrect their works," Skold says. He visited the gravesites of such giants of the poetry world as Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Praising Madonna

Hawke, in Romania to help promote his mother's charity supporting education for Gypsy children, placed the pop superstar alongside Bob Marley and John Lennon as part of a tradition of artists' speaking out against racism.

"She transcended being a pop star," Hawke told reporters. "She drew international attention and shone the spotlight on a level of racism and the need for greater education."

Rock-and-roll royalty

phillynews.com. This column contains information from Inquirer wire services.