Update: Initially being pegged for a bow in the 400-450,000 range, One Direction’s new album “FOUR” now looks set to score an opening week sales total in the lower half. Hits Daily Double says the album is currently on track to move 400-425,000 copies in week one.
Down by more than 100,000 from the mark for 2013’s “Midnight Memories,” the total will nonetheless power 1D to the top of the Billboard 200.
Among newcomers, the next most successful release will be Nickelback’s “No Fixed Address.” The album is tracking for a launch in the 60-65,000 range, which represents a far cry from what the pop-rock band moved during its heyday.
In This Moment’s “Black Widow” (24-27,000) and the Lorde-curated “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” soundtrack are also on the radar this week.
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The week is still young (and Monday release dates complicate forecasting), but based the data that has thus far been amassed, One Direction’s “FOUR” is on pace to move 400-450,000 copies in its first week.
Hits Daily Double first reported that projection.
Enough to dethrone Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories” as the year’s second-hottest opener, the expected total would nonetheless trail the inaugural totals for predecessors “Midnight Memories” and “Take Me Home.”
Released in 2013 and 2012, those albums sold 546,000 and 540,000 first week copies, respectively.
As far as 2014 releases go, only Taylor Swift’s “1989,” which moved 1.287 million copies in its first week, got off to a hotter start.
