Rush’s ‘Moving Pictures’ Hits New Heights on Billboard Charts Thanks to 40th-Anniversary Reissue

Keith Caulfield
·4 min read

Rush’s Moving Pictures album, first released in 1981, makes a splash across a number of Billboard charts (dated April 30) thanks to the set’s 40th-anniversary reissue. The album re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 2 and hits No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums and Catalog Albums charts for the first time. It also re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 11 — the band’s highest rank in nearly a decade.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

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Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums rank the week’s most popular rock and hard rock releases, respectively, by equivalent album units. Catalog Albums tallies the most popular catalog (older) albums of the week, also by units.

Moving Pictures sold 18,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending April 21, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data – an increase of 7,847% compared to its sales in the previous week. It marks the band’s best sales week in over six years, since R40 Live sold 24,000 copies in its debut week, when it arrived at No. 14 on Top Album Sales (Dec. 12, 2015-dated chart).

Of the 18,000 copies sold of Moving Pictures, physical sales comprise 16,500 (9,500 on vinyl and 7,000 on CD) and digital sales comprise 1,500.

The 40th-anniversary reissue of Moving Pictures was available in multiple remastered editions, including a super deluxe box set that sold for $300. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.

Moving Pictures was first released in 1981 and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart – the then-highest-charting album for the band. The set went on to become the longest-charting release for Rush, spending 76 weeks on the tally. The album launched the hit singles “Limelight” and “Tom Sawyer,” both of which charted in the top 10 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and also dented the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. The album also scored Rush its first Grammy Award nomination, for best rock instrumental performance, for the album cut “YYZ.”

The 40th-anniversary reissue additionally pushes Moving Pictures back onto the Billboard 200, where it re-enters at No. 11 – the album’s highest rank since August 1981. Moving Pictures’ re-entry also lands Rush its highest placing on the Billboard 200 in nearly a decade, since Clockwork Angels spent two weeks in the top 10 (June 30-July 7, 2012), debuting and peaking at No. 2.

Back on the new Top Album Sales chart, Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost re-enters at No. 1, following the set’s vinyl release. The album was originally released in June 2021 via streamers, digital retail and on limited-edition CD and cassette tape. In the week ending April 21, 2022, the album sold 51,000 copies – of which 49,500 were vinyl LPs. As earlier reported, the latter figure marks the largest sales week for a hip-hop album on vinyl, or for a solo male album on vinyl, since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991.

Six former No. 1s are next up on Top Album Sales. Jack White’s Fear of the Dawn falls 1-3 in its second week (11,500; down 70%), Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love dips 3-4 (9,500; down 50%), Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour jumps 10-5 (though down 10% to 8,500), and Taylor Swift’s Evermore flies 74-6 (a little over 7,000; up 274%) after a surge in vinyl sales via Internet sellers. (Evermore’s vinyl sales grew 533% to 6,500 for the week, likely owed to stock replenishment for the very popular vinyl set. In 2021, it was the sixth-biggest selling vinyl album of the year, with 250,000 sold.)

Stray Kids’ Oddinary rises 13-7 (7,000; up 5%) and Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday re-enters the chart at No. 8 (nearly 7,000; up 382% — nearly all from vinyl sales) after it was reissued on vinyl for its 10th anniversary. The former No. 1 was available in three vinyl variants, including a three-LP super deluxe box set that retailed for $390.

Kurt Vile’s Watch My Moves debuts at No. 9 on Top Album Sales with 6,000 sold (marking Vile’s first top 10) and Wet Leg’s self-titled album closes out the top 10, falling 4-10 in its second week with nearly 6,000 sold (down 69%).

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