His album has only been out for two days, but Eminem sits atop the album charts in the US. His third release, “The Eminem Show,” sold 284,534 copies, becoming the first album to debut at number one without the benefit of a full first week of on-sale days.

“I guess people couldn’t wait to sell this record,” says Steve Berman, Interscope Geffen A&M head of sales and marketing. “I’ve seen this before but never at this scale … it’s amazing. Basically, this is like a movie opening on a Sunday evening and being number one at the box office for the week. We had, at the most, a thirty-six hour window with limited public knowledge of availability. All of our advertising runs next week.”

But there is some controversy surrounding the debut. Many retailers reportedly began selling the album Friday or Saturday, a street-date violation.

The album comes out in Canada today, where Marc Anthony’s “Mended” was number one. Anthony finished third in the US.






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