| Eminem Tops Charts Ahead of Holiday Season |
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Eminem topped music charts for a second week, warming up a recent cold spell for record companies who hope the rapper and big releases from acts like U2 and Gwen Stefani will ignite a hot holiday season
Eminem topped music charts for a second week, warming up a recent cold spell for record companies who hope the rapper and big releases from acts like U2 and Gwen Stefani will ignite a hot holiday season
It’s been soft, but things are getting better and I think we’re going to have a good fourth quarter, John Sullivan, chief financial officer of Trans World Entertainment Corp., a retail music chain operator, said on Wednesday.
Eminem’s Encore sold about 871,000 albums in the United States in the week ended Nov. 21, according to Nielsen SoundScan, bringing his 10-day total to 1.6 million units.
That just about matched the first 10-day sales tally of Eminem’s last album, The Eminem Show, in 2002, which has gone on to sell a total of 9.3 million units.
Overall U.S. album sales for the week totaled 15.3 million compared with 16.6 million in the year-ago week, marking the industry’s 10th consecutive down week.
Total year-to-date U.S. album sales have increased, however, totaling 545.8 million units compared with 529.0 million last year.
Ranking second behind Eminem was Destiny’s Child’s Destiny Fulfilled, selling 497,000 units, while Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz landed at No. 3 with Crunk Juice, which sold an estimated 363,000 units. Rounding out the top five were Clay Aiken (news)’s Merry Christmas With Love, which sold 270,000 units and Shania Twain’s Greatest Hits, which sold 232,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Retailers expect to reverse the recent downtrend starting this week, the kick-off to the holiday retail season.
The past few weeks have been weak, but this week looks like it’s going to be quite strong with both Eminem and U2, said Duncan Brown, chief operating officer for Newbury Comics, a Boston-based operator of 25 stores in New England. And here in Boston, we’re also blessed to have the world championship baseball team, he added, citing brisk sales of new DVD titled 2004 World Series (news - web sites)-Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals.
The DVD’s really been helping sales, he said.
U2’s new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band’s follow-up to its 2002 Grammy winner All That You Can’t Leave Behind, was released to stores on Tuesday and is expected to hit 1 million units in its first week, helped by a promotional campaign of epic proportions.
Media appearances, free concerts and the group’s tie-in with Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod and iTunes music service have created more buzz than for any other album this year. Under Apple’s deal, its iTunes Music Store got exclusive rights to the band’s new songs during their first weeks in release. Apple is also selling special edition U2 iPods.
I would imagine that with the visibility U2 has, we will be selling a lot of records, Brown said.
Gwen Stefani’s debut solo album Love, Angel, Music, Baby is also is expected to draw a big tally, and is predicted to land around No. 3, behind Eminem this week.
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| Mississippi Author Larry Brown Dies - Nov 25, 2004 19:7 IST |
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Author Larry Brown, who wrote about the often rough, gritty lives of rural Southerners, died Wednesday at his home, his publisher said. He was 53.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack, North Carolina-based Algonquin Books announced.
I’m just paralyzed, like most people when they lose a loved one they admire, said fellow Oxford-based author Barry Hannah.
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| Sirius Shares Slip on JPMorgan Downgrade - Nov 25, 2004 18:48 IST |
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Shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., whose shares have doubled over the past month, on Wednesday fell 8 percent after a JPMorgan analyst said that a further rally would make the stock expensive relative to its growth potential.
We believe Sirius is now much closer to reflecting the near-term rapid growth opportunity we foresee, prompting us to take profits, said Barton Crockett, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, who downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight.
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| Almodovar’s ’Education’ Gets NC-17 Grade - Nov 25, 2004 16:41 IST |
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Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, Bad Education, will carry an NC-17 rating, a commercially damaging tag which means that no one aged 17 and under will be admitted.
Almodovar’s film, which delves into the issue of priestly sexual abuse within the context of a homoerotic film noir, was released Friday in New York via Sony Pictures Classics. It opens Dec. 10 in Los Angeles.
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| Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site - Nov 25, 2004 16:41 IST |
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Hollywood’s major movie studios said they won a $23.8 million judgment against a California company and its Malaysian owner for operating a Web site that charged customers to download illegally copied movies.
The company, MasterSurf Inc, is owned by Tan Soo Leong, and it operated a site called Film88.com, according to a statement by the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the studios in governmental and industry matters.
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| Sony Pictures Sets Up Operation in China - Nov 25, 2004 16:23 IST |
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Sony Pictures has set up a joint venture television and film co-production unit in China, taking advantage of a loosening of restrictions on the tightly controlled industry.
The joint venture with Hua Long Film Digital Production Co. of the state-run China Film Group, which holds a majority stake, has full approval from Chinese regulators, Sony Pictures Television International said in a statement Thursday.
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| Conrad Sentenced to House Arrest - Nov 25, 2004 16:22 IST |
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Former Wild Wild West star Robert Conrad will pay a price for his wild, wild ride.
The aging action hero has been sentenced to six months of house arrest, five year’s probation and alcohol counseling for a 2003 DUI accident.
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| Beatles’ Guitar, Cobain Letter Up for Auction - Nov 25, 2004 16:17 IST |
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Rock ’n’ roll fans with deep pockets can buy a Beatles guitar or a mugshot of the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens at what Christie’s said on Wednesday was its biggest auction of show business memorabilia.
The Gibson SG electric guitar, played by George Harrison from 1966-1969, is the star attraction among over 400 lots, ranging from Britney Spears’ book report to a handwritten 1991 letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love.
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| Critics Blast ’Alexander’ But Novelist Defends It - Nov 25, 2004 16:16 IST |
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While critics savaged Oliver Stone’s long-waited epic Alexander, novelist and social activist Gore Vidal rallied to the $160 million movie’s defense saying it was barrier-breaking because of its frank depiction of bisexuality.
Stone’s film opened on Wednesday to near universal pans from critics who called it everything from a noble failure to an indifferent epic.
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| Police praise ’courageous’ Ozzy - Nov 25, 2004 16:2 IST |
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The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday.
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| McCartney backs UK conservation - Nov 25, 2004 16:1 IST |
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The awards set out to honour excellence and innovation in preserving the UK’s cultural heritage.
Sir Paul, 62, agreed to fund the awards after meeting 2002 winner Ian Clark and hailed conservationists’ work.
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| Elderly ’need digital TV funds’ - Nov 25, 2004 15:58 IST |
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The Ofcom Consumer Panel is advising the government on how to make sure the vulnerable are not left behind when the switch-off happens, probably in 2012.
The UK government may have to spend £250m-400m to make sure those groups can still receive TV, its report said.
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| UK sweep up at global Emmy Awards - Nov 25, 2004 15:32 IST |
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Channel 4 won three prizes - for Brat Camp, The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off and children’s tale, The Illustrated Mum.
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| Glastonbury mulls ID card tickets - Nov 25, 2004 15:20 IST |
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The black market trade has flourished with recent huge demand for tickets.
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| US actor fined over Oscars piracy - Nov 25, 2004 15:19 IST |
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Mr Caridi, 70, who had small parts in two Godfather films, was sued for sending videos of The Last Samurai and Mystic River to another man.
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| Label withdraws McFadden’s video - Nov 25, 2004 15:16 IST |
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St Fintian’s High School says it is clearly identified in the video, while McFadden never went there.
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| Potter director signs Warner deal - Nov 25, 2004 15:15 IST |
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The Mexican film-maker, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, will produce mainstream movies and smaller Spanish-language films.
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| US Super Bowl opts for McCartney - Nov 25, 2004 15:14 IST |
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Organisers have promised there will be no repeat of her nipple-baring incident that sparked thousands of complaints on US TV’s most-watched broadcast.
A National Football League spokesman said they were comfortable this show would be acceptable to a mass audience.
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| Jermaine Jackson to divorce wife - Nov 25, 2004 15:9 IST |
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The older brother of Michael Jackson petitioned the Superior Court, asking that the couple’s children, Jaafar and Jermajesty, live with their mother.
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| Stars turn out for rare Waits gig - Nov 25, 2004 15:7 IST |
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The gravel-voiced US singer played at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on Tuesday in front of a sell-out crowd.
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| Blake jury given evidence warning - Nov 25, 2004 15:1 IST |
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They were warned by Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels that there is no DNA evidence, no fingerprints and no eyewitnesses to the crime.
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