Thriller, Motown 25

In 1982, Jackson contributed the song "Someone In the Dark" to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; the record won a Grammy for Best Album for Children. That year Jackson issued his second Epic album, Thriller. The album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks and 37 of those weeks at the peak position. It was the first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". Thriller was certified for 28 million shipments by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the US. It is often cited as the best-selling album of all time, with worldwide sales between 47 million and 109 million copies.
Jackson's attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point; approximately $2 for every album sold. He was also making record breaking profit from compact discs or the sale of The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller; a documentary produced by Jackson and John Landis. Funded by MTV, the documentary sold over 350,000 copies in a few months of sale. The era saw the arrival of novelties like the Michael Jackson doll, that appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12. Thriller retains a position in American culture; biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli explains, "At some point, Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple."
Gil Friesen, President of A&M Records, said "the whole industry has a stake in this success". Thriller raised the importance of albums, but multiple hits also changed notions about the number of singles to release. Time magazine explained 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 the chic regions of synthesizer pop". The publication described Jackson's influence at that point as "Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too". The New York Times called him a "musical phenomenon", saying that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else". According to the The Washington Post, Thriller paved the way for other acts such as Prince.