This Is It is No. 1 in 17 countries

In its first week of release in the United States, This Is It topped the Billboard 200 chart, and it also became No. 1 on the soundtrack albums chart. The This Is It concert film has also become the highest-grossing concert film in cinema history. Apart from the United States, the This Is It album is No. 1 in 16 other countries: Canada, Japan, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Middle East region, and Colombia. In the UK, the album is at number 3. It is also among the top three albums in Australia, Argentina, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and Spain. In addition, the album holds the No. 1 position on the worldwide best-selling albums chart. At the same time, a film and an album (This Is It) by a No. 1 artist have both gone to No. 1—and this hadn’t happened since 1971. That year, the album and documentary film by The Rolling Stones became No. 1 at the same time. On the Billboard album catalog chart—which includes albums that have been out for more than 18 months—Michael’s album standings are as follows: Number Ones #1 Thriller 25 #3 The Essential Michael Jackson #4 Bad #10 Off The Wall #13 Dangerous #17 Greatest Hits - History Vol I #23 Over the course of his career, Michael has been at the top of the Billboard chart for 51 weeks, last reaching this position with Invincible in 2001. Since then, he hadn’t released another new album until after his death, when Number Ones took the top spot on the Billboard album catalog chart and stayed there for weeks. Last month, Thriller also returned to the top of this chart. In terms of how long he stayed at the top of the Billboard chart, Michael ranks third. Elvis Presley and The Beatles are ahead of him. Source: eMJey / Billboard / michaeljackson.com