The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album - Commercial Performance

Commercial Performance

The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, behind Ice Cube's The Predator, selling 144,500 copies in its first week. In its second week, the album topped both of the charts, with sales of 292,000 units. While the album stayed the summit on the charts, it broke the record for the most one-week sales twice. In its fifth week, it sold 831,000 copies, smashing the old sales record of 770,000 set by Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II in the fall of 1991. The following week, the album once again set a record for the most albums sold in a single week (1,061,000 copies) since the Nielsen SoundScan introduced a computerized sales monitoring system in May 1991, making it the first album to sell over 1 million copies—1,061,000, to be exact—in one week. The soundtrack stayed at number one for 20 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, and spent eight consecutive weeks atop the Top R&B Albums chart, remaining on the charts for a total of 141 weeks and 122 weeks, respectively. The album held the record for the most weeks at number one, and the record for the most non-consecutive chart-topping weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era until 2012 when it was overtaken by Adele's 21 which spent 24 non-consecutive weeks at the summit.

Due to its incredible staying power on the charts, The Bodyguard soundtrack was ranked #1 in several categories of 1993 Billboard year-end charts, including Top Billboard 200 Album and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album. In addition, the album was the first in Nielsen SoundScan history to rank among the top three albums in two consecutive years (#3 for 1992, #1 for 1993), and the best-selling soundtrack by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) in 1993-1994. When the soundtrack to The Bodyguard was credited as a Whitney Houston album in Billboard's archives, she became the only artist with three albums to remain on top of the Billboard 200 chart for over ten weeksㅡWhitney Houston (14 weeks), Whitney (11 weeks) and The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album (20 weeks). Houston also broke the record for the most cumulative weeks at number one by a female artistㅡa record she still holds at 46 cumulative weeks.

The album received the largest initial certification of any album for 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) on January 18, 1993. The record was broken by 'N SYNC's No Strings Attached, certified 7× Platinum initially in April 2000. On March 16, 1999, when the RIAA launched the Diamond Awards, honoring sales of 10 million copies or more of an album or single, the album received the award with 62 other albums initially. It was certified 17× Platinum by the RIAA on November 1, 1999, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of all-time in United States. According to the Nielsen SoundScan, as of November 2012, it sold 12,048,000 copies, becoming the fifth best-selling album of SoundScan era in the United States.

In 1992-1993, with the huge international success of the film The Bodyguard, the soundtrack was also a phenomenal hit worldwide. The album reached the number one in almost all countries. It topped the albums chart in Australia for five weeks, Austria for nine weeks, Canada for 12 weeks, France for eight weeks, Germany for 11 weeks, Hungary for two weeks, Italy for two weeks, Japan for two weeks, Netherlands for six weeks, New Zealand for eight weeks, Norway for six weeks, Sweden for four weeks, Switzerland for nine weeks. In the United Kingdom, the album didn't chart on the main albums chart because compilation albums were excluded from the main albums chart from January 1989. Instead, the album reached the top on the official compilation albums chart and stayed there for 11 weeks, spending 60 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 and for a total of 107 weeks on the chart. Through its massive success across Europe, it topped the European Top 100 Albums chart for 15 non-consecutive weeks. In the U.K., the album was certified 7× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on January 1, 1994, and has sold 2,138,030 copies, landing at number fifty-three on the list of UK's 100 best-selling albums of all time, announced by The Official UK Charts Company in November 2006. In Japan, it was certified 2× million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in 1994, the first time a foreign artist achieved that feat in Japanese music history, and eventually became the best-selling foreign album with 2.8 million copies sold. The record was later broken by Mariah Carey's #1's, certified 3× million in 1998. In Germany, the album has sold more than 1.7 million, earning 3× platinum awards by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI). In addition, it was awarded Diamond for the sales of over 1 million in both France and Canada. It has sold 1.1 million in Brazil, becoming the best-selling international album by a female artist, and set a record for the best-selling foreign album with the sales of 1.2 million over in South Korea. In Australia, it became the best selling album of 1993. In Mexico, the soundtrack sold more than 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling English-language record in 1994. To date, the album has sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling soundtrack of all time.