‘Black Panther: The Album’ Spends Second Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart

Black Panther: The Album spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, as the set earned 131,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Feb. 22 (down 15 percent), according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 40,000 were in traditional album sales (down 23 percent). A week ago, the album debuted at No. 1 with 154,000 units (52,000 in album sales).

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 March 3-dated chart (where Black Panther: The Album spends a second frame at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

Black Panther: The Album — which features music from and inspired by the Marvel Studios film Black Panther — is the second soundtrack to notch two weeks at No. 1 in 2018. It follows The Greatest Showman, which logged two weeks atop the lists dated Jan. 13 and 20. In addition, 2018 is the first year since 2014 where the chart has housed two soundtracks with more than a week at No. 1 each. It last happened with Frozen (14 weeks at No. 1) and Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (two weeks at No. 1).

Also, with Black Panther: The Album’s modest decline in its second week — down 15 percent to 131,000 units — it earns the biggest second week for a soundtrack since 2015. That year, on the chart dated March 7, the Fifty Shades of Grey album tallied 165,000 units in its second week, after debuting with 258,000 units a week earlier. (Black Panther: The Album’s small second-week decline is owed in part to the film’s premiere in theaters on Feb. 16 — the first day of the chart’s latest tracking week.)

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Migos’ former leader Culture II rises 4-2 with 64,000 units (down 5 percent), while The Greatest Showman is steady at No. 3 with 61,000 units (down 15 percent).

Rapper Nipsey Hussle debuts at No. 4 with his first studio album, Victory Lap, earning 53,000 units. The set — which also garners him his first ink on the Billboard 200 — is mostly powered by traditional album sales (30,000), but also drew a solid streaming figure (21,000 SEA units). It earned an additional 2,000 in TEA units. Hussle made his Billboard chart debut in 2010 with the song “The Life,” which reached No. 16 on the Rap Digital Song Sales chart. He’s landed a pair of mixtapes on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart: Crenshaw (No. 61 peak in 2013) and Mailbox Money (No. 18 in 2015).

Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile notches her highest charting album ever on the Billboard 200, as By the Way, I Forgive You debuts at No. 5 with 43,000 units (of which 41,000 are in traditional album sales). The set surpasses her previous high-water mark, logged when The Firewatcher’s Daughter debuted and peaked at No. 9 off a start of 43,000 units in 2015. The new album is the artist’s seventh entry on the tally, dating back to The Story, which reached No. 41 in 2007.

Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods descends 2-6 with 38,000 units (down 50 percent), Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) slips 6-7 with 37,000 units (down 11 percent) and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. rises 9-8 with just under 33,000 units (up 7 percent).

Rounding out the top 10: Post Malone’s Stoney falls 8-9 with 32,000 units (up less than 1 percent) and the Fifty Shades Freed album falls 5-10 in its second week with 28,000 units (down 52 percent).

Source: billboard.com