Peter Mountain/Universal PicturesIt's big Mamma's house on the charts.
With no monster debuts this week, it became a battle of the holdovers, and the Mamma Mia! soundtrack rose to the top by actually losing the least. Miley Cyrus and Sugarland sales skidded 37 and 47 percent respectively between weeks, but the ABBA-charged Mamma Mia! dipped just 5 percent on its way to its first chart crown.
Mamma Mia! ruled the week ended Sunday by selling another 131,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan. The five-week-old soundtrack has sold 576,000 total copies to date, and as of Monday, the film topped $104 million at the box office after originally scoring the biggest opening weekend ever for a musical.
Mamma Mia! is the second soundtrack to top the charts this year, following Juno's rise to No. 1 last January. In contrast, Dreamgirls was the only film soundtrack to top the charts in '07, and it earned the dubious distinction of reaching No. 1 on the fewest number of copies (just 60,000) in the SoundScan-era.
Among the other recent chart toppers, Cyrus' Breakout held tight at No. 2 on 102,000 copies, while Sugarland's Love on the Inside fell to No. 3 on 91,000 discs.
Leading the week's new debuts, R&B crooner Lloyd sold 51,000 copies of Lessons in Love for a No. 7 bow. Comparatively speaking, it's the Big Easy singer who got schooled considering last year's Street Love scored a more robust No. 2 debut on 144,000 copies.
While Lloyd might need a new lesson plan, the week's other top 10 bow must endure the one-trick pony tag. Heidi Newfield, former singer for Trick Pony, opened at No. 10, selling 34,000 copies of her solo debut What Am I Waiting For.
New debuts aside, Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad is doing wickedly well as the only top 10 album on the rise. Thanks to her hit singles "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia," the disc jumped three spots to No. 9, up 28 percent on 44,000 copies.
Just outside the top 10, Keith Anderson sold 32,000 copies of C'Mon! for a career-high No. 12 bow. Conor Oberst's eponymous solo debut sold 29,000 copies, giving the Bright Eyes singer a No. 15 bow, and Trapt's Only Through the Pain followed at No. 18 selling 25,000 copies.
Other notable debuts included Hawthorne Heights' Fragile Future at No. 23, Jamey Johnson's That Lonesome Song at No. 28, Norma Jean's Norma Jean vs. the Anti Mother at No. 29, Randy Newman's Harps and Angels at No. 30 and Grammy-winning comedian Lewis Black at No. 64 with Anticipation.
John Mayer also deserves a mention this week as his 2006 album Continuum celebrates its 100th week on the Billboard 200. The album sits at No. 82 for its birthday week with over 2.2 million copies sold to date.
Meanwhile, on the digital tracks chart, the Jonas Brothers scored another huge debut with "A Little Big Longer" selling 131,000 copies at No. 2. The tween sensations also scored a No. 2 bow the week previous with "Tonight" selling nearly the exact same amount of downloads ("Tonight" sold 299 more copies, to be exact).
Overall, album sales are down nearly 3 percent from last week and down 11 percent compared to the same week in ’07, when UGK's Underground Kingz topped the chart.
To recap, the top 10 albums are as follows:
- Mamma Mia! soundtrack, various
- Breakout, Miley Cyrus
- Love on the Inside, Sugarland
- Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid Rock
- Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
- Viva La Vida, Coldplay
- Lessons in Love, Lloyd
- Camp Rock soundtrack, various
- Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna
- What Am I Waiting For, Heidi Newfield