‘Black Panther: The Album’ Debuts At Top Of Billboard Charts

Black Panther opened in theaters this weekend and quickly became a global sensation, bringing in a massive global box office haul of $387 million, surpassing all expectations. However, it’s not just the movie that’s a massive success. The movie’s soundtrack is tearing up the charts.

Black Panther: The Album, the movie’s official soundtrack curated by Kendrick Lamar debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, selling 154,000 equivalent album units for the week ending February 15, according to Billboard. Of that impressive number, 52,000 — roughly a third — are traditional album sales as opposed to digital downloads.

The album is unique as soundtracks go. Marvel looked to Lamar and Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith to curate and produce Black Panther: The Album. The result is an album that features music from and inspired by the film, including Lamar and SZA’s lead track, “All The Stars.” To create the album, Lamar and Tiffith collaborated directly with Black Panther‘s director Ryan Coogler giving Black Panther not only a visual experience, but a sonic one as well. Of the 14 songs on the soundtrack, three are heard in the film and according to Disney, this marks the first time in Marvel Studios history that multiple original recordings have been specifically created for and incorporated into a movie.

Black Panther: The Album‘s top spot debut makes it the second soundtrack to hit No. 1 this year. The soundtrack to Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman spent two weeks at the top of the list back in January. That soundtrack is currently sitting at No. 3 on the chart while Black Panther: The Album displaced Justin Timberlake’s most recent release, Man of the Woods. It’s now in the second spot having brought in half of what Black Panther: The Album did in sales sales last week.

Of course, Top Dawg Entertainment isn’t just involved in the music for the film. The label is also buying tickets for kids from three Watts housing projects in Detroit, giving kids who live in the underserved communities an opportunity to see Black Panther on the big screen.

Black Panther is now in theaters. It will be followed by Avengers: Infinity War on May 4th, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.