Eminem ousts Lady Gaga to reclaim top spot on Billboard 200 chart

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[December 05, 2013]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Rapper Eminem climbed back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday after ousting last week's chart-topper Lady Gaga.

Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" reclaimed the top spot on the weekly album chart with sales of 120,000, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

The record had debuted at No. 1 following its release on November 5 with sales of 792,000 copies, the second-largest opening week this year behind Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience," which opened with 968,000 copies in March.

Lady Gaga's latest effort "ARTPOP" debuted at No. 1 last week with 258,000 copies, but sales dropped by 82 percent in its second week, as the record fell to No. 8 in the chart with 46,000 units sold.

Five new debuts entered the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week, led by heavy metal rockers Five Finger Death Punch at No. 2 with "The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Vol. 2."

The soundtrack from the latest "Hunger Games" film, "Catching Fire," featuring songs by Coldplay, Lorde and Christina Aguilera, landed at No. 5. The film starring Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, stormed the worldwide box office with $307 million last week.

Rock band Daughtry came in at No. 6 with "Baptized," rapper Yo Gotti notched No. 7 with his latest record "I Am" and the 25th anniversary edition of the "Cities 97 Sampler" compilation, featuring alternative rock artists such as Capital Cities, Fun. and Matchbox Twenty, rounded out the top 10.

On the digital songs chart, which measures song downloads, Eminem's "The Monster" featuring Rihanna kept its reign at No. 1 with 241,000 downloads. New Zealand singer Lorde's "Royals" climbed one spot to No. 2 and OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" fell one spot to No. 3.

Overall album sales for the week ending November 24 totaled 5.29 million, down 46 percent from the comparable week in 2012, according to Billboard.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Gunna Dickson)

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