Jackson Film Rakes in Over $250 Million Worldwide

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Pictures on Thursday said global ticket sales for its movies have neared $3.4 billion, beating a studio record with a range of films such as Michael Jackson's "This Is It," which raked in more than $250 million worldwide.

The Jackson film, which was put together from video footage of the late pop star rehearsing for a series of concerts that would have taken place had he not died in June, debuted in theaters in late October and ended its run outside the United States this week with $180 million internationally, Sony said.

The movie finishes its domestic -- United States and Canada -- run on Thursday night, where it already has generated some $72 million, according to ticket sales tracker Boxofficemojo.com.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of giant Sony Corp, said it had raked in a total of $3.357 at global box offices as of Wednesday, surpassing the studio's own previous box office record of $3.334 billion.

In domestic markets, Sony said its box office total has reached $1.37 billion, while in international markets the total will surpass $2 billion after this coming weekend.

Helping fuel the studio's record year have been current hit "2012," which has earned $620 million worldwide, thriller "Angels and Demons," surprise sci-fi smash "District 9," and action-filled "Terminator Salvation."

(Reporting by Corinne Heller; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Richard Chang, abcnews)