I know purple rain sold 1.4mil copies in the first 24hrs but i still dont know how much it sold in its first week??

Actually, on what do you base your info. Sources?
[Edited 7/14/07 10:38am]

jtfolden said:

I saw the 1.4mill figure on a news item where they have what happened on that day back thru the yrs.

asg said:

IIRC, it sold that amount over the course of a week or two, not within 24 hours. If it had, the album would have debuted at #1, which it didn't.

jtfolden said:

it sold 1.4mil in 24hrs only not 2 weeks back in the 80s no albums did debut at #1 becasue it wasnt done purely by the numbers! It was very hard for an album to reach #1 let alone debut at #1

As I said, we'd need a real source to verify that. I used to buy Billboard magazine in the 80's and don't recall numbers like that.

jtfolden said:

well it was widely known prince had sold more then 1mil albums on the first day but until i read that article i didnt know it was 1.4mil in a single day plus
purple rain spent a total of 24 consequtive weeks at #1 no album has ever done that! I am dtrying to search it was in the news several months back

how long was the movie release affter the album here is what i found on time magazine

. Purple Rain had already sold nearly 2.5 million copies before the movie was released last Friday

http://72.14.253.104/sear...d=41&gl=us
[Edited 7/14/07 14:20pm]


here is another source
http://www.superiorpics.com/prince/

It also spent an incredible 24 consecutive weeks at #1, becoming one of the top soundtracks ever. The album reportedly sold more than a million copies on the day of its release.
[Edited 7/14/07 14:24pm]

asg said:

I don't know how widely known it was... Until now, I've never heard the claim but stories do change over time.



The album was released June 25th, 1984 and the movie was released July 27th or so, a month later.

Selling 2.5 million in a month sounds like a more accurate figure and more in line with what I read. i have a real hard time believing the album sold 1.4mil in 24 hours and then took another month just to sell 1mil copies.

jtfolden said:

He's about right. I remember doing a oral report on Prince for a speech class,way back in "86". I rememember saying that Purple rain sold at least one million copies in it's first day

asg said:

3 mil in its first week? that's impossible. I know that the all-time first-week record by Nsync is 2.5 mil

krayzie said:

nsync could be in the soundscan era b4 that they never reported any hard numbers

asg said:

Nope.

according to billboard: it was 11 on pop and 18 RB


http://www.billboard.com/...F14%2F1984


http://www.billboard.com/...F14%2F1984


#1 RB July 28


http://www.billboard.com/...F28%2F1984

#1 pop Aug 4

http://www.billboard.com/...F04%2F1984
[Edited 7/14/07 23:54pm]

krayzie said:

Right, it took PR about a month to sell 2.5 mil according to the link previously provided.

asg said:

Never reported hard numbers? Of course they did... it just took longer to collate them at Billboard.

jtfolden said:

they were extremely inaccurate, even after they numbers were collected. which is why you saw a HUGE shift toward r&b and country on the albums and singles charts after the introduction of soundscan