ATYCLB drops ten (!) spots this week, from #55 to #65, on the U.S. Billboard chart. Still, this has more to do with how close sales are across the board than ATYCLB signficantly decreasing in sales.
Melissa sent me actual SoundScan data, so I can report the sales results for the past few weeks. Three weeks ago, ATYCLB sold 29,292 copies. Two weeks ago, although the album remained virtually at the same position on the charts, it sold 22,108 copies. Last week, according to SoundScan, ATYCLB sold 17,606 copies. This week, ATYCLB sold 14,259 copies.
This is a drop of over 3,000 copies, which is larger than I expected. However, this was a VERY slow week for album sales. For example, "The Scorpion King" soundtrack had a sales drop of over 4,000 copies, yet it rose two places on the charts - to #5. The the Tweet album, "Souther Hummingbird" saw a sales drop of almost 30,000 copies, yet it dropped a mere spot on the charts, from #5 to #6. The #10 album sold a scant 56,000 copies. Often the #20 album will see those sales. Therefore, despite the sales drop for ATYCLB, I don't think we are at "the end" of this album's run quite yet. My guess is that it will drop to around the 7-8,000 copies sold mark and then linger there for a while, consistently charting between #110 and #150 on the Billboard charts.
The "Elevation" VHS video rises from #14 to #13, but saw a sales decline from 1,591 copies to 1,373 copies. The "Elevation" DVD rises from #9 to #8, however, it too sees a sales drop from 1,455 copies to 1,269 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). Even if the video (DVD and VHS) has sold only 3,000 copies/week for the past 12 weeks, that's still 36,000 copies sold. Add in the 20,000 copy first week sales and the additional holiday season sales and you can see how the numbers quickly add up. My estimate is that the "Elevation" video (DVD and VHS) has sold approximately 100,000 copies - enough for Platinum in the U.S.
As a side note, while N'Sync has the #1 selling VHS video, the DVD version debuted BELOW "Elevation" on the DVD charts.
"The Best Of" drops to #39 from #23 on the Pop Catalog charts. Sales dropped to 4,165 copies from 5,619 copies. Despite the drop, with a second "Best Of" or possible new album coming soon, I'm sure this release will return to the Top 20 in the future. "The Joshua Tree" dropped from #123 to #168 on the Pop Catalog charts. Sales declined to 2,200 copies from 2,543 copies. This bouncing by JT is typical. The "Limited Ed. of the Best Of" (the double CD version) appears for another week in the Pop Catalog charts. Last week it charted at #199 selling 2,018 copies. The week prior, it missed the Top 200 on the charts, but sold 2,001 copies. This week, the album charts at #182 on the Pop Catalog charts, selling 2,115 copies. So at least there's one U2 item that increased in U.S. sales for the last three weeks.
ATYCLB is still a "top" Internet seller, charting at #25 this week, down from #23. It sold 464 copies this week, down from the 561 copies sold last week.
United States
The first 77 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)
17-25-37-47-48-55-65
"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 33 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 73 out of 77 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 77 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 + 14,000
Exact U.S. SoundScan sales are: 3,814,101 copies (note that the sum of the weekly estimates is off from the exact total due to rounding). The album is now less than 190,000 copies from the 4x Platinum mark in the U.S.
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).]