DarlingDiana said:

So Off The Wall has sold nothing?

Dangerous sold 32 million and is believed to have been on its way to outsell Thriller. Let's look at what stunted its sales:

1) In 1993, ofcourse, Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation. How did this stunt his sales?
i) He lost a lot of popularity and a lot of his fan base
ii) He cancelled the US leg of the Dangerous tour, which could've boosted the sales of the Dangerous album. When he toured Europe is sho nuff boosted the sales over there. The same would go for the US.

2) The final single was supposed to be the title track, but was cancelled. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the allegations, or if it just got cancelled. Another single and kick ass video wouldv'e also boosted the sales of Dangerous.

3) In 2001, when the Special Edition CD's of Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad and Dangerous were brought out, they all had bonus tracks except Dangerous. Alot of people would've allready had Dangerous, and the only thing that would've made them buy the Special Edition is if it actually was a Special Edition, but all it was, was a supposed "Remastered" version of the album, although I swear every track sounds the same as it did in 1991, the same sound quality and everything. If there were bonus tracks, it could've boosted the sales of Dangerous SE.

So with a completed Dangerous tour, another single and video release, and bonus tracks on the Special Edition re-release could've have boosted the sales to over 40 million, nearly 50 million. Not as much as Thriller, but I dare say if it got the kind of agulation Thriller got, it would be up to or over 60 million by now. There were alot of factors but in the end, you can't change HIStory.

The simple truth is Dangerous is a far better album than Thriller, but Thriller sold over 20 million more copies than Dangerous.

If you're interested, list of Michael Jackson's best-selling albums:

(Motown albums are official figures as of 1990. Epic albums are current best estimates. Excludes box sets and the likes.)

1) Thriller - 60 million
2) HIStory - 36 million - but only because its a double album
3) Dangerous - 32 million
4) Bad - 30 million
5) Off The Wall - 20 million
6) Invincible - 11 million
7) Blood on the Dance Floor - 7 million
8) Number Ones - 6.5 million
9) Ben - 4.5 million
10) Got To Be There - 4.2 million
11) Greatest Hits (HIStory disc 1) - 3 million
12) Best of Michael Jackson - 2.2 million
13) Essential MJ - 2 million
14) Music & Me - 2 million
15) Farewell My Summer Love - 2 million
16) Forever, Michael - 1.6 million
17) One Day In Your Life - 1.5 million

* Note that Epic gave HIStory a sales figure of 18 million (and because it is double disc set the figure is multipled by the number of discs, as happens with all multi-disc albums), but Michael gave a sales figure of 25 million in 1996 (he said in an interview, when asked if there will be any more singles from HIStory: "well were up to 25 million copies (that's copies not discs) allready and we'd like to keep that figure growing." So that would make HIStory's sales figure 50 million. Maybe Michael's over-estimating, and Epic is under-estimating or not keeping up to date, I don't know, but I can say it's more that 35 million (approx.) and less than 50 million (approx.), you can decide which figure you want to go with.
[Edited 1/23/06 4:22am]

Cloudbuster said:

Whoops... my bad

2) HIStory - 36 million

DarlingDiana said:

Why don't you just divide it in half like it should?

Novabreaker said:

Because all multiple disc albums are multiplied by the number of discs. It's what RIAA does when releasing official sales figures. It's what's allways done.

DarlingDiana said:

Still, it's a dubious way to count sales. 18 million it is.