On the Charts: Jackson Sells 1.1 Million, Maxwell Tops Album Chart
The Big News: Michael Jackson’s discography moved over 1.1 million copies last week as sales of the King of Pop’s albums continue to increase more than two weeks after his death. Like previous weeks, Jackson’s album were ineligible for the Top 200, but had they been eligible Number Ones would have topped the charts with 348,000 copies. Jackson’s stunning sales week overshadowed the great debut of Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night, which took Number One on the Top 200 with 316,000 copies sold. It was the second consecutive Number One album for Maxwell, who last released Now back in 2001.
Three other Jackson albums topped 100,000 in sales last week: Thriller with 263,000, Essential Michael Jackson with 147,000 and Off the Wall with 106,000 copies. On the Top Catalog Albums chart, Jackson’s albums, compilations and Jackson 5 collections fill the entire Top 12, and on the Top Comprehensive Chart — which maps the sales of all albums — Jackson’s catalog takes up six of the Top 10 spots. In total, the 1.1 million copies that Jackson’s catalog sold last week as more than half of the 2.1 million copies the entire Jackson-less Top 200 sold last week.
Debuts: Also lost in all the Jackson sales chaos was the mediocre debut of the Hannah Montana 3 soundtrack, which sold 137,000 copies to place at Number Two on the Top 200 (By comparison, Hannah Montana 2 sold 326,000 in its debut week in 2007.) All Time Low’s Nothing Personal was the only other rookie that managed to crack the Top 10, coming in at Number Four with 62,000 copies. Further down, LMFAO’s Party Rock wound up at 33, Son Volt’s American Central Dust cleared a path to 44 and the Alchemist’s Chemical Warfare grabbed 63.
Last Week’s Heroes: Now 31, last week’s Number One album, was knocked down from its perch into Number Three as sales dipped 41 percent. The biggest drops were reserved for Rob Thomas’ Cradlesong (from Three to Seven) and Wilco’s Wilco: The Album (from Four to 11.) Still, the big news continues to be the sustained and improving sales of Jackson’s catalog. How long will this go on for? Will Jackson outsell Leave This Town, the second album by Daughtry, whose debut LP was the best-selling album of the last three years? We’ll find out next week.
