Thursday, March 29, 2012

'Hunger Games' Soundtrack Tops Billboard Album Chart

Adele's 21 remains at #2, followed by the Shins'Port of Morrow and One Direction's Up All Night.
By Gil Kaufman


Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games"
Photo: Lionsgate

After its $155 million box-office opening, "The Hunger Games" pulled off the rare double-play by landing its soundtrack at the top of the Billboard 200 charts in the same week. "The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond," sold 175,000 last week, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The compilation, which features songs by Taylor Swift with the Civil Wars, as well as tunes by Maroon 5, the Decemberists, Miranda Lambert, Arcade Fire and Kid Cudi, sold just enough copies to once again keep Adele at #2, where her tenacious 21 sold another 130,000 copies.

After a five-year hiatus, the Shins returned with their fourth studio album, Port of Morrow, which landed at #3 (74,000), while rowdy hip-hop collective Odd Future debuted at #5 with OF Tape, Vol. 2. The other two new faces in the top 10 were singer Melanie Fiona with My Life (#7, 34,000) and 2011 Best New Artist Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding's Radio Music Society (#10, 25,000).

British boy band One Direction fell to #4 as sales of their debut, Up All Night, dropped by 69 percent to 55,000. Bruce Springsteen dipped two spots to #6 with Wrecking Ball (37,000), NOW 41 hung around at #8 (31,000) and Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits sold another 28,000 while moving down a few notches to #9.

Second-generation hip-hop royalty Diggy entered the charts at #13 with Unexpected Arrival (21,000), easy-on-the-eyes "American Idol" third-place finisher Casey James released his self-titled label bow, landing at #23 (14,000) and Woodie-winning MC Machine Gun Kelly snuck into the top 50 at #46 with is Half Naked & Almost Famous EP (9,000).

The deck will get shuffled all over again next week, when Madonna's MDNA is predicted to take the #1 spot with sales in excess of 325,000 copies. There will also likely be top 10 debuts by Lionel Richie, hawking his countrified hits duets album, Tuskegee, along with Florida rockers Shinedown.

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