 |
| ▲ This image, provided by Netflix, shows an image from its original animated film "KPop Demon Hunters." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
animation soundtrack-Billboard
'KPop Demon Hunters' soundtrack surges to No. 2 on Billboard 200, tops Melon chart
SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- The soundtrack for the animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in its third week, propelled by the global popularity of the U.S.-produced film centered on a fictional K-pop girl group.
Billboard reported Sunday (local time) that the album rose one spot from No. 3 the previous week, marking its highest position on the chart to date.
After debuting at No. 8 following its release June 20, the soundtrack jumped five spots to No. 3 last week.
"KPop Demon Hunters" is a Netflix original musical animation that features the popular girl group HUNTR/X, who protect the human world from evil spirits.
Including the film's soundtrack, only five movie soundtrack albums have reached the top two of the Billboard 200 in the 2020s alongside those for "Wicked," "Barbie" and "Encanto."
The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States, measured by equivalent album units, comprising physical sales, track-equivalent units and streaming-equivalent units.
During the latest tracking week, the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack earned 75,000 equivalent album units, up 21 percent from the previous week. Of the total, 70,000 came from streaming equivalent album units.
"It's the first soundtrack to debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 and then see unit increases in its second and third weeks since the 'Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2' album in 2017," Billboard said in a chart preview for this week.
"As the 'KPop Demon Hunters' soundtrack racked up 96.33 million streams for its songs in its third week, it scored the biggest streaming week for a soundtrack in more than three years," it said, adding that the last soundtrack to post a bigger streaming figure was "Encanto" in 2022.
The soundtrack's success has extended to South Korea, the birthplace of K-pop.
"Golden" sung by HUNTR/X, the girl group featured in the movie, soared to No. 1 of the Top 100 of the country's leading music streaming platform, Melon, beating Allday Project's "Famous" and aespa's "Dirty Work."
As of 8 a.m. Monday, a total of six songs of the album were on the chart, including "Soda Pop" (No. 5), "Your Idol" (No. 19), "How It's Done" (No. 54), "Takedown" (No. 93) and "Free" (No. 98).
The soundtrack is expected to sustain its chart momentum, with multiple tracks also projected to remain on the Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart this week.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
