On the Charts: Ed Sheeran Fights Off ‘Beast’ to Remain Number One
Beauty and the Beast‘s box office record-shattering opening weekend in theaters wasn’t enough to boost its soundtrack to Number One on the Billboard 200 as Ed Sheeran‘s Divide spent a second consecutive week in the top spot.
Divide added another 180,000 total copies – of which, 87,000 were traditional album sales – to its impressive first-week haul to enjoy a second week at Number One. Divide also became the first album since the Suicide Squad soundtrack back in August 2016 to spent its first two weeks of availability in the top spot, Billboard reports.
Metallica’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct finished at Number Two for a second straight week thanks to a deal that bundled copies of the heavy metal band’s new LP with ticket purchases for their upcoming tour. This method allowed Hardwired… to add another 102,000 copies to its total this week.
The week’s highest charting debut was the soundtrack to the live-action Beauty and the Beast, which bowed in at Number Three. The soundtrack sold 57,000 total copies in its debut week, which gave the album a weeklong head-start on the monstrously successful film; Beauty and the Beast set a record for a PG-rated film and March movie with a massive $170 million opening, which should result in increased soundtrack sales this time next week.
As Billboard notes, the classic soundtrack for the 1991 animated film only peaked at Number 19.
Beauty and the Beast was the lone new release to crack the Top 10 as the upper tier of the chart saw little movement: Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic fell one spot to Number Four, where it was followed by the Moana soundtrack (Number Five), with Future’s self-titled LP (Six) and HNDRXX (Nine) bookending the Weeknd’s Starboy (Seven) and Migos’ Culture (Eight). The Trolls soundtrack rounded things out at Number 10.
Drake’s More Life should easily capture Number One next week, with Beauty and the Beast and Rick Ross’ new Rather You Than Me on the rapper’s heels.