350-400 thousand is not THAT much for a NEW release..
think of it this way.. (some high numbers recently in the U.S.)
*Kanye West 957,000 copies it's first week (Really high)
that same week in #2 was Linkin Part with 635,000 it's first week
Justin Timberlakes last album sold 684,000 it's first week
To sum it up, the average number for a large album opening week in todays U.S. market is in the mid 600 thousands.
Michaels new album should (I HOPE) reach somewhere around Kanye Wests opening weeks, but have a consistant sales throughout a long period of time..
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Opening week sales tells VERY little. Let me explain..
Though Kanye West had a SMASH opening week, it was 83% of his TOTAL world wide sales to date.. His album only sold 1,153,000 worldwide..
Justin TImberlake who had an average first week sold , 273,000 less it's first week than Kanye, but sold 5.5 million worldwide in the long run.. ( over 4 million more than Kanye)
Now If Michael were to open lets just say in the middle of Justin Timberlakes sales and Kanyes, with 822,000 opening week.. And had a long length rate of sales could reach very high in the long run..
Back in the 90's, opening week sales were MUCH lower.. People could not just DOWNLOAD the album, they would HAVE to go to he store, if they are out, they're out.. His albums would sell in the mid 300,000 range.. and later each into double digits in sales.. Now if Michael can have a big opening week, and the album has a long life could reach HIGH..
Todays music sells FAST opening weeks, then freezes.. This will be the challange for Michael.. The best think will be to make videos etc, spread out in a long period of time.. Like he did Thriller.
Thriller 25 was planned for the release date.. Look at it's compition, there was not ONE major album released that same week.. (SMART) the compition were albums that are slowly declining in sales..
Amy Whinhouses album was released in 2006. And that was one of THRILLERS biggest compition now.. Whinhouses album out sold Justin Timberlakes album. It's the TIMEING for THRILLER 25 that got it's high rankings..
NON the less, I'm not breaking it down, a 25 year old album selling anywhere near 156,558 albums in U.S. opening week is a big deal.