'A Star Is Born' Now Aiming for No. 1 Return on Billboard 200 Chart

While it earlier appeared Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next was set for a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, it now seems Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack will retake the throne on next week’s tally.

Industry forecasters suggest A Star Is Born could earn around 125,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Feb. 28. Meanwhile, Thank U may tally around 115,000 to 120,000 units.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the March 9-dated Billboard 200 chart (where Star could return to No. 1) is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, March 3.

On Tuesday, forecasters suggested Thank U was going to hold on at No. 1 for a third frame with around 110,000 to 115,000 units. Meanwhile, former No. 1 Star was on course for a 3-2 climb on the list with perhaps 100,000 units.

What’s happened since Tuesday? It’s likely that Amazon’s sale pricing of the digital download of the A Star Is Born soundtrack pumped a late-in-the-week sales surge for the set. On Wednesday, the album was priced at $3.99, and then on Thursday, it dropped to $2.99. (Lady Gaga tweeted about both sale prices to her 78 million followers, so awareness was high with her fans about the discount.)

Of course, A Star Is Born is also continuing to benefit from all the publicity generated by its parent film’s showcase at the Academy Awards on Feb. 24. The movie was nominated for eight awards, including best picture. The movie took home one award: best original song for “Shallow.” The tune was performed on the show by Gaga and Cooper in a warmly received performance.

Assuming A Star Is Born returns to No. 1, it will mark the fourth non-consecutive week in the penthouse for the soundtrack.