'Frozen' soundtrack notches biggest sales week, tops Billboard

[April 24, 2014]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — The soundtrack for Disney's hit film "Frozen" notched its 11th nonconsecutive week at the top spot of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, earning its best sales week and becoming the animated-film soundtrack with the longest run at the top of the charts.

"Frozen," which features the Oscar-winning song "Let It Go," sold 259,000 copies last week, boosted by Easter holiday shopping, bringing its total U.S. sales to 2.3 million since its release in November 2013.

"Frozen" also ousted Disney's 1994 "The Lion King" as the animated-film soundtrack with the longest run; "Lion" had held the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart for 10 weeks.

Four new albums debuted in the top 10 of the chart this week, starting with hip-hop artist August Alsina's "Testimony" at No. 2. Rockers Needtobreathe entered the chart at No. 3 with "Rivers in the Wasteland," R&B singer Jason Derulo was No. 4 with "Talk Dirty," and singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson came in at No. 5 with "Lights Out."

For the week ended April 20, overall album sales totaled 5.3 million, down 2 percent compared to the same week in 2013, Billboard said.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Mary Milliken and Prudence Crowther)

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