Although Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ proved to be a #1 hit in America last weekend, beating out the popular Michael Jackson concert film ‘This is It’ with a $31 million opening, the story overseas is quite different.

Variety reports that ‘This is It’ has remained the #1 film in the international market, and that Jim Carrey’s new 3D Scrooge story only grossed $12 million in 18 territories. By contrast, ‘This Is It’ brought in $29.5 million from 8,623 screens in 110 markets, bringing it to a worldwide total of $186.2 million.

‘A Christmas Carol’ has brought in disappointing numbers across the board for Disney, with less-than-projected sales even in America. Still, Disney execs are confident that the film will make up loss revenue by continuing to pick up steam as the holiday season approaches, much like ‘The Polar Express’ did back in 2004.

But with James Cameron’s highly-anticipated ‘Avatar’ coming to 3D screens in time for Christmas, theaters may have to push 3D-showing of ‘A Christmas Carol’ aside to make room.

After much hype (”much” being a dramatic understatement), the highly-anticipated “This is It” hit theaters on the 28th. The movie follows Michael Jackson’s final rehearsals, leading up to what would have been his massive 50-date London concert series. Unfortunately, Michael passed away before his vision could become a reality.

But luckily, filmmakers had over 100 hours worth of rehearsal footage to work with in creating Michael’s final masterpiece: a glimpse into what would have been one of the sickest concert experiences of all time. Giant walking puppets, 3D visual effects, complex dance choreography, high-powered fans, pyrotechnics and enough energy to light the city of New York for a week, seeing this film was a bittersweet experience for me. We clearly have lost one of the great musical geniuses.

And the critics seem to agree. The film has a fresh rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert raved that the film is “an extraordinary documentary,” and described Michael as “a spirit embodied by music.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Kenny Ortega (director of the “High School Musical” series), directed the film and is featured prominently throughout as director and co-choreographer. All I can say is, thanks Kenny for sharing this remarkable footage with us.