"Les Miserables" soundtrack tops Billboard 200 chart

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Les Miserables: Highlights" has moved to the top of the Billboard 200 chart this week from being last week's no. 2. It's the first soundtrack to reach no. 1 in the chart since "The Hunger Games" became the no. 1 album in April last year. It also became the first musical film soundtrack at the top of the charts since "Hannah Montana: The Movie" peaked back in May 2009, and the first stage musical-turned-movie musical to hit no. 1 since "Mamma Mia" did so in 2008, AceShowbiz said.

Mumford & Sons leaped to second place from their previous no. 8 ranking with their album "Babel". Although they posted an impressive 34% increase this week with 91,000 records sold, it wasn't enough to beat the 92,000 units of the "Les Mis" compilation.

With the two top albums registering less than a 100,000 sales, this week marks the first time since October last year when no album in the top 10 broke the 100,000 barrier. At the time, "Babel" held the top spot for the third week with only 96,000 units sold. The slow sales were due mostly to the post-Christmas slowdown as well as the lack of new major releases in the market.

Last week's no. 1 album, Taylor Swift's "Red", fell to no. 3 with 69,000, down by a whopping 71% from its staggering 241,000 records sold last week. It failed to give the pop-country music sweetheart her eighth non-consecutive week at no. 1 which kept her from edging out Adele for the title of female artist with the most weeks at no. 1 at 24 weeks.

One Direction and Bruno Mars managed to stay in the top 10 this week. The British-Irish boyband's "Take Me Home" went from no. 3 to no. 5 with 61,000, and Mars' "Unorthodox Jukebox" moved from no. 4 to no. 6 with 55,000. On the upside, the The Lumineers climbed one spot from no. 9 to no. 8 with their self-titled album (51,000), while just above them at no. 7 was the soundtrack of "Pitch Perfect" with 52,000.

This week also saw the re-entry to the top 10 of "The World From the Side of the Moon" from Phillip Phillips, coming in from no. 11 to this week's no. 4 spot. Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire", meanwhile, filled no. 9 with 44,000. Pink rounded up the top 10 with 41,000 copies sold of her latest album "The Truth About Love".