Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper's 'A Star Is Born' Soundtrack Back at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Post-Oscars
3/3/2019 by Keith Caulfield
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a fourth nonconsecutive week on top, as the set steps 3-1 with 128,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Feb. 28 (up 152 percent), according to Nielsen Music.
The album got a big boost from publicity and promotion spurred by its parent film’s showcase on the Feb. 24 Academy Awards. The movie was nominated for eight awards, including best picture. A Star Is Born took home one award, for best original song, for “Shallow.” The tune was sung on the show by newly minted Oscar-winner Gaga ("Shallow's" co-writer), alongside Cooper, in a warmly-received performance.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new March 9-dated chart -- where Star is back at No. 1 -- will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on March 5.
Star bumps Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next, which spent its first two weeks on the chart at No. 1, down to No. 2 with 116,000 units (down 23 percent).
On Feb. 26, industry forecasters expected that Thank U was going to spend a third week in charge with perhaps 110,000 to 115,000 units, while Star was going to post a big gain, but settle for the runner-up slot with around 100,000 units. So, what happened between then and Feb. 28, the final day of the tracking week that ultimately put A Star Is Born back at No. 1?
It’s likely that Amazon’s sale pricing of the digital album edition of the Star soundtrack pumped a late-in-the-week sales surge for the set. On Feb. 27, the album was priced at $3.99, and then on Feb. 28, it dropped to $2.99. (Lady Gaga tweeted about both sale prices to her 78 million followers, so awareness was high with her fans about the discount.)
As it turns out, while Star’s overall units gain by 152 percent, the set’s album sales surge by 166 percent (to 76,000; up from 29,000). Further, its digital album sales rise by 353 percent (to 50,000; up from 11,000).
With a fourth week at No. 1, Star nets the most weeks atop the chart for any soundtrack since the companion set to the Disney animated film Frozen ruled for 13 nonconsecutive weeks in 2014. (Between Frozen and Star, Black Panther notched three weeks at No. 1.)
Star now has the most weeks at No. 1 for a live-action film soundtrack since Disney Channel’s TV movie High School Musical 2 saw its soundtrack claim four straight weeks at No. 1 in 2007. Going back even further, the last live-action theatrically released movie soundtrack (like Star’s) to score four weeks at No. 1 was Bad Boys II in 2003.
Star spent its first three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (charts dated Oct. 20-Nov. 3, 2018), and has yet to depart the weekly top 10 in its 21 weeks on the tally.
