ATYCLB drops seven spots this week, from #48 to #55, on the U.S. Billboard chart. This is good news as it further suggests that the album will not plummet down the charts after returning to the Top 10 in the post-Grammy week.
Melissa sent me actual SoundScan data, so I can report the sales results for the past two weeks. Two weeks ago, ATYCLB sold 29,292 copies. Last week, although the album remained virtually at the same position on the charts, it sold 22,108 copies. This week, the album drops below 20,000 copies sold for the first time in 10 weeks. According to SoundScan, ATYCLB sold 17,606 copies this week.
The "Elevation" VHS video drops from #13 to #14. Sales declined to 1,591 copies from 1,758 copies. Given that videos only need to sell 50,000 copies to be certified as GOLD, I'm sure this video has achieved this status some time ago. The "Elevation" DVD drops from #8 to #9. Sales declined to 1,455 copies from 1,604 copies. I'm not sure if the DVD and VHS sales are combined (for certifying a video), but it only makes sense if they are. The first week sales for the DVD were reported to be an astounding 20,000 copies (which would have been enough to hit #1, but it did not because it was only released at Best Buy - a Billboard rule stating that an item must be released to all stores prevented the video from entering the charts that week). My estimate is that the "Elevation" video (DVD and VHS) has sold close to 100,000 copies - enough for Platinum in the U.S.
"The Best Of" drops to #23 from #17 on the Pop Catalog charts. Sales dropped to 5,036 copies from 5,619 copies. This is the first time the "Best Of" has fallen out of the Top 20 in a while. However, with a second "Best Of" coming soon (or, perhaps a new album), I'm sure this release will return to the Top 20 in the future. "The Joshua Tree" dropped from #123 to #127 on the Pop Catalog charts. Sales declined to 2,543 copies from 2,832 copies. This bouncing by JT is typical. The "Limited Ed. of the Best Of" (the double CD version) peaks in the Pop Catalog charts at #199 selling 2,018 copies. It sold 2,001 copies last week, probably just missing the Top 200.
ATYCLB is still a "top" Internet seller, charting at #23 this week, down from #16. It sold 516 copies this week and 668 copies last week.
United States
The first 76 weeks for ATYCLB on the U.S. Billboard charts are:
3-5-12-22-23-24-20(1xP)-18-22-16
19-19(2xP)-25-33-37-35-11(3xGrammy)-15-25-31
38-40-42-45-45-48-50-48-50-58
60-53-50-66-74-82-81-89-88-99
105-106-108-104-78-66-53-50-57-55
54-58(3xP)-62-67-80-77-78-76-69-71
74-58-39-56-61-66-25(SBowl)-26-28-10(4xGrammy)
17-25-37-47-48-55
"POP" was out of the Top 100 after 19 weeks and "Zooropa" was out of the Top 100 after 31 weeks. ATYCLB fell out of the Top 100 after 40 weeks, however, it has now returned for an additional 32 weeks. In other words, ATYCLB has had *two* runs in the U.S. Top 100 that were longer than the amount of time "Zooropa" spent there. That alone tells us how successful this album is. ATYCLB has spent 72 out of 76 total weeks in the U.S. Top 100; 30 weeks in the U.S. Top 40; and 3 weeks in the U.S. Top 10. What's impressive is that the elusive third week in the U.S. Top 10 came 70 weeks after the album was released.
Approximate weekly sales for the first 76 weeks of ATYCLB are (rounded to nearest thousand):
428,000 + 176,000 + 119,000 + 125,000 + 100,000 + 113,000 + 154,000 + 259,000 + 108,000 + 66,000 + 59,000 + 57,000+ 47,000 + 44,000 + 41,000 + 49,000 + 85,000 + 74,000 + 54,000 + 48,000 + 43,000 + 39,000 + 37,000 + 39,000 + 30,000 + 29,000 + 26,000 + 29,000 + 25,000 + 24,000 + 27,000 + 30,000 + 31,000 + 24,000 + 22,000 + 18,000 + 19,000 + 17,000 + 17,000 + 15,000 + 14,000 + 14,000 + 13,000 + 13,000 + 16,000 + 19,000 + 21,000 + 23,000 + 22,000 + 22,000 + 24,000 + 25,000 + 24,000 + 23,000 + 21,000 + 28,000 + 28,000 + 30,000 + 46,000 + 72,000 + 42,000 + 28,000 + 26,000 + 19,000 + 20,000 + 19,000 + 46,000 + 53,000 + 36,000 + 81,000 + 56,000 + 40,000 + 32,000 + 29,000 + 22,000 + 18,000
Exact U.S. SoundScan sales are: 3,799,842 copies (note that the sum of the weekly estimates is off from the exact total due to rounding). This is *just* shy of the 3.8 million mark. By now, ATYCLB has already passed that.
With the album selling approximately 20,000 copies the past few weeks, STING2, would you estimate that there are 200,000 copies in stores now? In other words, with 3.8 million copies sold, the album still selling around 20,000 copies a week, would stores have an extra 200,000 copies in stock? If so, it may very well have reached that 4x Platinum mark - it's just a matter of it becoming official.
I will post some of the SoundScan charts in another post.
Other ATYCLB chart data:
Highest Rankings for "Beautiful Day": #21 on the Hot 100 chart, #1 on the Dance Charts, #5 on the Modern Rock chart, #4 on the Adult Top 40 chart.
Highest Rankings for "Suck in a Moment...": #52 on the Hot 100 chart, #9 on the Adult Top 40 chart.
Highest Rankings for "Elevation": #9 on the Modern Rock chart. I *believe* #17 on the Dance charts.
Highest Rankings for "Walk On": #10 on the Modern Rock chart.
[This message has been edited by doctorwho (edited 04-25-2002).]
