LOS ANGELES, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The soundtrack to the big
screen adaption of Broadway musical "Les Miserables" topped the
Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, edging out British folk
rockers Mumford & Sons.
"Les Miserables" sold 92,000 albums in the week, according
to data from Nielsen SoundScan, a 32 percent decline from last
week for the star-studded production featuring the singing of
Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman. It was the No. 2
album last week.
The soundtrack had the poorest showing for a No. 1 album
since Christian hip-hop and pop artist tobyMac's "Eye on It"
topped the chart in September with 69,000 in sales.
Mumford & Sons' "Babel" rose to the second spot from No. 8,
finishing behind "Les Mis" by only a thousand albums sold. The
British band's second album w a s boosted by a sale price and
heavy promotion on the Apple iTunes Store.
Country-pop star Taylor Swift, whose album "Red" spent the
past four weeks atop the chart, dropped to third.
"American Idol" winner Phillip Phillips' "The World from the
Side of the Moon" took fourth and British boy band One
Direction's "Take Me Home" was fifth on the chart.
U.S. album sales for last week, which totaled 6.26 million,
rose 8 percent compared to the same week last year.
A total of 34.53 million songs were downloaded last week, a
5 percent increase from last year.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Jackie
Frank)