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‘The Greatest Showman’ Soundtrack Hits No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
The Greatest Showman soundtrack hits No. 1 in its fourth week on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 106,000 equivalent album units earned (up 37 percent) in the week ending Jan. 4. Of that sum, 78,000 were traditional album sales (up 28 percent).
The soundtrack to the musical drama film was released on Dec. 8 through Atlantic Records and marks the first chart-topping soundtrack since Fifty Shades Darker spent one week at No. 1 on the March 4, 2017-dated tally.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Jan. 13-dated chart (where The Greatest Showman tops the list) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, Jan. 9.
The Greatest Showman soundtrack debuted at No. 71 on the Billboard 200 dated Dec. 30, 2017, jumped to No. 63 the following week, and then zoomed to No. 5(following the movie’s U.S. theatrical release on Dec. 20). The album includes music by the film’s stars Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron and Zendaya. According to Box Office Mojo, the film has earned over $67 million at the U.S. and Canada box office through Jan. 5.
Here are some fun facts about The Greatest Showman soundtrack hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200:
The First Album to Hit No. 1 in a Year Without Debuting at No. 1: Generally speaking, No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 reach No. 1 by debuting at the top — not by rising to the pole position, as The Greatest Showman did. The Greatest Showman album bowed at No. 71, then moved 63-5-1. The last No. 1 album to climb to the top was Pentatonix’s A Pentatonix Christmas, on the list dated Jan. 7, 2017, when hit No. 1 in its ninth chart week.
First Theatrically Released Musical Film Soundtrack to Hit No. 1 Since 2015:The Greatest Showman is the first theatrically released musical film to see its soundtrack top the chart since Pitch Perfect 2 debuted at No. 1 on the list dated May 30, 2015. (The album spent one week in the penthouse.) Between Pitch Perfect 2 and The Greatest Showman at No. 1, there was one other musical soundtrack that topped the list: Disney Channel’s TV movie Descendants in 2015.
Jackman & Efron at No. 1: Collectively, The Greatest Showman’s Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron have been a part of four different chart-topping soundtracks. Efron performed on the companion albums to both High School Musical (2006) and High School Musical 2 (2007) and Jackman was featured on Les Miserables (2013).
10th Soundtrack to Hit No. 1 in the Last Five Years: Of the 184 albums that were No. 1 in the past five years, just 10 have been soundtracks. The Greatest Showman follows: Fifty Shades Darker, Suicide Squad: The Album (2016), Descendants, Pitch Perfect 2, Furious 7 (2015), Empire: Original Soundtrack From Season 1 (2015), Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (2014), Frozen (2014) and Les Miserables.
As for the rest of the Billboard 200’s new top 10, it’s a fairly quiet week, and the chart is adjusting back to normal after a busy holiday shopping season. Further, with few significant albums were released on Dec. 29, so there are no debuts within the top 100 of the chart.
Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) holds steady at No. 2 with 67,000 units (down 27 percent), while Taylor Swift’s Reputation falls 1-3 with 48,000 units (down 55 percent) and G-Eazy’s The Beautiful & Damned climbs 8-4 with 42,000 units (down 16 percent). The Greatest Showman is the only album in the top 10 to see a gain in units, which is not unusual for this time of year on the chart, as business gets back to normal after the high volume of units generated during the Christmas season.
Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. jumps 9-5 with 41,000 units (down 11 percent), Eminem’s Revival slips 4-6 with nearly 41,000 units (down 51 percent), and Imagine Dragons’ Evolve rises 11-7 with nearly 41,000 units (down 8 percent).
Post Malone’s Stoney bumps 10-8 with 39,000 units (down 11 percent), Huncho Jack’s Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho falls 3-9 with nearly 39,000 units (down 57 percent) and Khalid’s American Teen closes out the top 10, ascending 15-10 with 31,000 units (down 7 percent).
Source: billboard.com