'Black Panther' Debuts At No. 1 On Billboard

Black Panther: The Album debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, launching with 154,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Feb. 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 52,000 are in traditional album sales.

The set, which features music from and inspired by the blockbuster Marvel Studios film Black Panther, garners the biggest week for a soundtrack — in terms of total units earned — in a year-and-a-half.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Feb. 24-dated chart (where Black Panther: The Album starts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on Wednesday (Feb. 21) — one day later than usual, due to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 19.

The Black Panther album includes a number of songs by Kendrick Lamar, who curated and produced the hip-hop-heavy album with Top Dawg Entertainment’s founder/CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. The set’s tunes also boast contributions from The Weeknd, SZA, Khalid and James Blake, among others.

Black Panther is the second soundtrack to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2018, following The Greatest Showman, which spent two weeks atop the list (dated Jan. 13 and 20).

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods falls a spot in its second week on the list, with 74,000 units (down 75 percent). The Greatest Showman soundtrack holds steady at No. 3 with 72,000 units (down 10 percent), while Migos’ Culture II slips from No. 2 to No. 4 with 68,000 units (down 23 percent).

The soundtrack to Fifty Shades Freed bows at No. 5 with 58,000 units (of which 36,000 are in traditional album sales).