It looks like Justin Timberlake's new project may be in a bit of trouble, based on early sales reports.
The star's Super Bowl performance was not exactly applauded on all fronts on Sunday night, as many outlets were not exactly fans, writing such headlines as:
“Justin Timberlake’s halftime show was a wimpy joke” (USA Today)
“Justin Timberlake’s halftime show was a sonic mess” (Vox)
“This is how Justin Timberlake lost the Super Bowl” (Washington Post)
“Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl halftime show was dutiful and empty” (Entertainment Weekly)
There were positive headlines, too, no doubt, but it appeared that this wasn't entirely the headlines he wanted as he released his fifth studio album, Man of the Woods, on Friday the 2nd. The album's first single, "Filthy", was not positively received either, and nor was the second song released ("Supplies"). It appears, though, that the singer's tune with Chris Stapleton, "Say Something", is the one that could turn this project around -- it was lodged at #1 on iTunes for multiple days leading up to the Super Bowl. The album currently has an average 53 score on Metacritic, an aggregator of critical reviews. That stands as his lowest average, lower than Justified (68), FutureSex/LoveSounds (70), The 20/20 Experience (75), and The 20/20 Experience Part 2 (60).
Things got a bit worse on Tuesday, as reports continued to come in about the album's first week sales prospects. The album is fully expected to debut at #1, which is a plus for Timberlake, but its sales are increasingly looking diluted.
The project was initially expected to take in up to 700,000 copies in its first week at one time along the way, according to Hits Daily Double, most likely before the project really got off the ground with "Filthy" and the other songs. However, reports started to come in on Saturday, a day after its release, saying it could sell up to 350,000 its first week. That number was then revised to about 315,000 to 325,000 on Monday.
The bad news? The site has revised its predictions again, with sales coming in from the Super Bowl weekend, and it appears that the over-100 million-watched telecast did nothing for the album, as it's only predicted to sell around 215,000 copies in pure album sales for the week, with streaming and TEA (track equivalent albums) taking its "official" total to about 250,000 copies for the week.
That figure would put it at the lower end of Justin's first week sales -- Justified opened in 2002 with 439,000, followed by FutureSex/LoveSounds (684,000 in 2007), The 20/20 Experience (968,000 in 2013), and even The 20/20 Experience Part 2 (350,000 in 2013).
Is Justin over? Absolutely not. Sales are lower in 2018, 100%. But for a star of Timberlake's caliber, with a "comeback" album, and the biggest promotional platform an artist could possibly have, a debut of 200,000 first week is definitely not what he or his team were probably expecting. But his tour just added more dates, and most dates are already sold out. So maybe in the long run, it doesn't matter?