On the Charts: ‘Frozen’ Staves Off Compton Rapper YG for Number One

In an example of how bleak 2014 albums sales are, Frozen, the animated children’s film released last November, remains the No. 1 album for a seventh week. Overall sales totals got a slight bump — they’re up 3% over last week to 4.7 million units total — but we’re still looking at a 22% dip in overall movement compared to the same week in 2013. There’s also been a 15% drop in year-to-date numbers compared to this time last year. If only YG’s album sales had been as krazy as his life.

How ‘Frozen’ Went From Small Soundtrack to Worldwide Phenomenon

THE NEVER-ENDING FREEZE: Frozen had its best sales yet this week, moving 202,000 copies in the week ending March 23rd  on the back of an absurdly large DVD and Blu-ray roll-out that began on March 18th. To wit, Frozen is simultaneously a big seller in theaters — still the No. 13 highest-grossing film this weekend, despite hitting theaters in November of last year — a monster in DVD and Blu-ray sales (3.2 million copies sold) and a force on the charts (up 104% this week over last). And there’s still no thaw in sight.

NOTHING TOO KRAZY OTHERWISE: The No. 2 album this week was YG’s My Krazy Life. The Compton rapper took the Frozen competition seriously, tweeting, with tongue firmly in cheek, “If it wasn’t for that fukin frozen album I woulda had the #1 album on billboard top 200 too lol.” This is theoretically true, in that the number two comes after the number one, but My Krazy Life sold a solid, if not stellar, 61,000 copies. Consequently, YG would have had to triple his sales to even tie with the soundtrack.

DIGITAL SALES ARE SLIGHTLY BETTER: Skrillex’s first full-length LP, Recess, debuted at No. 4 in the Hot 100 and No. 2 on iTunes Top Albums this week, selling an unremarkable 47,000 albums. What is remarkable though is that 87% of those sales were digital-only, so Skrillex got himself his best-ever chart showing yet by moving only 6,000 physical copies.