Michael Jackson may be headed to the top of the charts again — this time at the movie box office.

"Michael Jackson's This Is It" took in $2.2 million domestically from its first late-night screenings, setting it up for a big full opening day yesterday and a strong shot at a No. 1 debut weekend.

Distributor Sony paid $60 million for worldwide rights to the film, which was distilled from more than 100 hours of footage shot as Jackson rehearsed for what would have been a 50-concert comeback run in London starting last July.

While "This Is It" is not quite a concert film, box-office watchers are gauging its success against "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert," the biggest concert movie on record. "Best of Both Worlds" had a $31.1 million opening weekend last year and pulled in $65.3 million domestically during its entire run.

4 CHARGED IN BURGLARIES OF STARS' HOMES

Los Angeles prosecutors yesterday charged four people with burglarizing the homes of Hollywood celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and Megan Fox.

Felony residential burglary charges were filed against three women and one man, who range in age from 18 to 27. Additional charges will be filed against an alleged accomplice.

The group is accused of breaking into the homes of Lohan, Fox, Paris Hilton and "The Hills" star Audrina Patridge. The people charged in the case are suspected of stealing more than $3 million in jewelry, designer clothes and other accessories, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

CHAVEZ SAYS PENN MAY FILM IN VENEZUELA

President Hugo Chavez said he met privately with actor Sean Penn yesterday, and that the Oscar-winning star may film a movie in Venezuela.

Penn may shoot a film based on a novel by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier, which is set largely in the jungle along Venezuela's southern Orinoco river, Chavez said. He appeared to be referring to Carpentier's 1953 novel "The Lost Steps," about an American anthropologist and composer's journey into the jungle region.

10 PROMISING WRITERS WIN $50,000 EACH

Ten emerging writers, their home countries ranging from Vietnam to the United States, each have received a $50,000 prize.

The Whiting Writers' Awards, given annually for "exceptional talent and promise in early career," were announced yesterday. The recipients included fiction writer Vu Tran, born in Vietnam and now living in Las Vegas, and poet Jay Hopler, a native of Puerto Rico who lives in Tampa, Fla. The other winners were poets Jericho Brown and Joan Kane, playwright Rajiv Joseph, nonfiction authors Michael Meyer and Hugh Raffles, and fiction writers Adam Johnson, Nami Mun and Salvatore Scibona, whose novel "The End" was a National Book Award finalist in 2008.