Eminem outsells ‘N Sync star to maintain multimedia reign

Eminem’s rare pop-culture daily double -- having the top-grossing movie and the best-selling album -- continued Wednesday as the soundtrack for his film “8 Mile” remained atop the nation’s album sales chart.

Though the album debuted at No. 1 last week, many industry observers felt the top spot would be taken over when new figures were announced Wednesday by the first solo album from ‘N Sync star Justin Timberlake.

But “8 Mile” sold 508,000 copies last week, easily topping the 439,000 sales of Timberlake’s “Justified,” according to Nielsen SoundScan. The two-week total for the “8 Mile” soundtrack is 1.2 million.

Other artists entering the Top 20 this week: U2 (No. 3), Jaheim (No. 8), the Dave Matthews Band (No. 9), Andrea Bocelli (No. 12), the Insane Clown Posse (No. 15) and David Gray (No. 17).

Meanwhile, it’s clear that neither the Elvis Presley nor the Rolling Stones retrospectives will come close to the blockbuster impact of the Beatles’ “1” anthology, which has sold more than 8 million copies since its release in 2000. Both the Presley and Stones collections have fallen out of the Top 15 after just a few weeks.

-- Robert Hilburn