Thriller (Michael Jackson album) and John Landis. Funded by MTV, the film sold over 350,000 copies in its first few months. In a market then driven by singles, "Thriller" raised the significance of albums, yet its multiple hit singles changed perceived notions as to the number of successful singles that could be taken from an individual album. The era saw the arrival of novelties like the Michael Jackson doll, that appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12 (US$ in dollars). "Thriller" retains a position in American culture; biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli explains, "At some point, "Thriller" stopped selling like a
Thriller (Michael Jackson album) leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple". At the time of the album's release, a press statement from Gil Friesen, the then President of A&M Records, read that, "The whole industry has a stake in this success". "Time" magazine speculated that "the fallout from "Thriller" has given the [music] business its best years since the heady days of 1978, when it had an estimated total domestic revenue of $4.1 billion". "Time" summed up "Thriller"s impact as a "restoration of confidence" for an industry bordering on "the ruins of punk and