LES MISERABLES Soundtrack Reaches No. 1 on Billboard Chart

According to Billboard.com, "Les Miserables: Highlights From the Motion Picture Soundtrack" is currently No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart, selling 43,000 in less than three full days on sale, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The recording stands at No. 33 on the Billboard 200.

Released just four days before the film's opening on Christmas day, sixty percent of the soundtrack sales came from digital downloads, inclding Amazon MP3 which offered the recording at a sale price of $5.

The Republic Records album features 20 songs from the film, including the current top seller, Anne Hathaway's version of "I Dreamed a Dream". The single sold 20,000 downloaded copies.

Other Les Mis titles have clearly benefitted from the success of the movie soundtrack. On Billboard's Top Cast Albums chart, the show's original Broadway Cast Recording rose from No. 3 to No. 2, with the Original London Cast Recording holding steady in the No. 5 position. The "Les Miserables Live! New 25th Anniversary Production" recording stands at No. 7, while the "Les Miserables: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall" production follows right behind at No. 8. Also on the charts is the "Highlights" album from the Original Broadway Cast Recording, which holds at No. 10.

Helmed by The King's Speech's Academy Award-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, Oscar winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, LES MISERABLES tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption-a timeless Testament to the survival of the human spirit. Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for Decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever.

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