Dead Music Stars Rake in the Big Bucks!!!

Michael Jackson's posthumous documentary and CD 'This Is It' is released this week, and if history is any guide, his estate stands to make a lot of money. Since his death in June, 9 million Jackson albums have been sold -- which means he's already beaten John Lennon and Elvis Presley in his fourth act. Actors like Marilyn Monroe and Heath Ledger also earned a whopping amount of money after they died. In a dead celebrity shocker, Forbes just announced its list for 2009, with deceased fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent topping the dead celebs at $350 million. (They auctioned off his estate, which contained all his fancy stuff-art, furniture, and clothing.)

MJ debuted at number 3, and the year isn't even done.

Michaelangelo Matos, who's written for Rolling Stone and Spin, says of the post-death sales bump: "This goes back quite a ways in music. You can go all the way back to Hank Williams. He died on New Year's 1952-3, and his sales skyrocketed after his death."

Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield, who writes the Pop Life column, adds: "MJ hasn't had a new record that anyone cared about in years, and it's hard to imagine people would care about his new performances if he were still alive. When an artist dies suddenly, and fans have mass grief, they want to hear the music as part of the mourning process. But with MJ, it's almost like people reconnected with music they'd forgotten how much they loved."

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