Christmas week 2015 saw music superstars Chris Brown & Monica go head-to-head in the name of R&B amidst a fray of the year’s top sellers (see: Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Adele). Hoping to capitalize from the holiday rush, the RCA labelmates respectively lent their 8th official projects (‘Royalty’ and ‘Code Red‘) to much critical fanfare.
On the commercial front, however, the responses saw a wider margin of variance. Both launched without a top-performing single on the Hot 100, the R&B sets also took a more demure route to promo. While Mo hit the streets for a 22 date Stateside tour (and sparse media stops), Brown relied on a few print features and a slew of music videos to spread awareness about his project.
Were their approaches just right or did they miss the mark? Find out below:
Monica
‘Code Red’ – 35,656 (33,718 pure sales) – #27 debut (Billboard 200)
‘Code Red’ marks Monica’s lowest premiere week placement in 20 years and second overall. The lowest comes courtesy of her debut album, ‘Miss Thang.’
Chris Brown
‘Royalty’ – 184,000 (162,000 pure sales) – #3 (Billboard 200)
Chris Brown’s new Royalty album clocks the top debut of the week, bowing at No. 3 with 184,000 units (162,000 in pure album sales).
In terms of straight sales, Royalty nets Brown his largest sales week since his 2011, when his F.A.M.E. album started at No. 1 with 270,000 sold.
Royalty is Brown’s eighth consecutive top 10 album (and all of his releases have made the top 10). It follows his collaborative album Fan of a Fan: The Album (with Tyga) earlier in 2015, which debuted and peaked at No. 7 (with 51,000 sold in its first week).