50 Cent gets his money’s worth with ‘The Massacre’

Rapper 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” album continued its blistering sales pace, topping the national pop chart for the third consecutive week.

The CD, which sold 1.14 million copies in its first four days in stores and then 771,000 copies in its second week, sold an additional 364,000 albums last week to bring his three-week total to almost 2.3 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

50 Cent’s strong showing meant the 18th volume in the “Now That’s What I Call Music” compilation series settled for second place on the charts Wednesday. The CD sold 339,000 copies in its first week.

Other recent releases are showing mixed degrees of sales punch. Jack Johnson’s “In Between Dreams” is No. 3 in its third week in the stores (99,000 copies sold last week), while Jennifer Lopez’s “Rebirth” fell to from No. 4 to No. 7 in its third week (60,000) and the Mars Volta slipped from No. 13 to No. 25 in its third week (33,000).

50 Cent cohort the Game’s “The Documentary,” meanwhile, is showing impressive staying power, finishing No. 5 in its ninth week on the shelves (68,000 last week) and the rock group the Killers’ “Hot Fuss” holds at No. 8 after almost five months in stores (58,000).

Ray Charles’ Grammy-winning “Genius Loves Company” sold 49,000 copies in its 29th week in stores. That brings its total sales to 2.7 million.