Top Dawg Ent./Aftermath/Interscope RecordsBlack Panther set records at the box office this holiday weekend, and now the movie’s soundtrack, curated and executive-produced by Kendrick Lamar, is tops as well.
Black Panther: The Album has debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart, with 154,000 units sold. It’s the biggest sales week for a soundtrack since August of 2016, when Suicide Squad: The Album debuted at #1 with 187,000 units.
In addition to songs by Kendrick, the 14-track Black Panther soundtrack features contributions from SZA, Khalid and The Weeknd, among others — however, only three songs are actually heard in the movie. According to Billboard, Black Panther is the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to incorporate songs created specifically for it.
With the #1 debut of Black Panther, there are now three soundtracks in the top five on the Billboard 200: Black Panther at #1, The Greatest Showman at #3, and Fifty Shades Freed at #5. It’s only the second time in 10 years that this has happened. The last time was in 2015, when Pitch Perfect 2 was #1, Fifty Shades of Grey was #3 and Furious 7 was #5.
Black Panther: The Album is the fifth #1 album for Top Dawg Entertainment, following three chart-toppers from Kendrick, plus Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron.
Black Panther is from Marvel and from Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
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