Beyonce 'Frozen' out of top spot on Billboard 200

LOS ANGELES - Disney princesses ousted Queen Bey from her three-week reign atop the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, as the soundtrack to Disney's latest film "Frozen" knocked Beyonce's self-titled album from the top spot.

The "Frozen" soundtrack sold 165,000 copies in the week ending Jan. 5, and follows on the film's continued box office success since its November release, taking in more than US$600 million (S$763 million) worldwide. The soundtrack has sold more than 500,000 copies since its release in December.

"Frozen" follows the story of two princess sisters, one of whom later becomes queen of her Nordic kingdom but has special freezing powers, accidentally casting an eternal winter over their realm, which her sister tries to overturn.

R&B star Beyonce's self-titled album, released as a surprise without any fanfare last month, slipped to No. 2 this week with sales of 130,000. The album, which was released exclusively through Apple Inc's iTunes digital store on Dec. 13 and was not available to other retailers until Dec. 21, topped the chart for three consecutive weeks over the US Christmas and New Years holiday period.

No new albums cracked the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week, following a quiet release week in the first week of the year. Overall album sales totaled 5.4 million over the past week, down 43 per cent from the comparable sales week in 2013, Billboard said.