Eminem’s got it made in the shady

Even though Eminem gave the competition a three-day head start last week, the Detroit rapper’s “Encore” album easily topped the nation’s sales chart this week after selling 711,000 copies over the weekend, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

To combat downloading and street piracy of the CD, Interscope Records released “Encore” on Friday instead of waiting until the scheduled Tuesday store date. Some stores even began selling the album last Thursday.

Even with its shortened sales window -- each week’s totals are counted through Sunday -- the album generated the third-biggest first-week total of the year. The sales also far exceeded the abbreviated first-week sales total of Eminem’s last studio collection, 2002’s “The Eminem Show.”

Interscope also allowed stores to begin selling that album early, and it tallied 285,000 copies on its first weekend. The difference between that figure and last week’s much higher total might be due to the limited publicity surrounding the date change in 2002. This time, Eminem appeared on MTV promoting the early release.

The big question is how well the album will do in its first full week in stores. “The Eminem Show” sold 1.3 million in its full week, making its 10-day total nearly 1.6 million.

Can “Encore” match that figure?

Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard magazine, said conversations with retailers Wednesday suggest that it may be tough.

“It looks like he’ll have another 700,000-plus week, maybe 750,000, which would put him close to 1.5 million,” Mayfield said. “But the real test, as always, is how well an album does over the long term. So, it’ll probably be weeks before we know the ultimate strength of the new album.”

Eminem’s last two albums have both sold around 9 million copies in the U.S.

Eminem was one of six artists breaking into the Top 10 this week with new releases. Shania Twain, Toby Keith and Britney Spears finished second, third and fourth, respectively, with greatest-hits packages. Twain’s album sold 530,000 copies, while Keith’s sold 435,000 copies and Spears’ CD sold 255,000.

The other Top 10 arrivals: Fabolous (No. 6 with sales of 179,000) and Ja Rule (No. 7 with sales of 166,000).