Kendrick Lamar's 'Black Panther' album could change the music industry

"Black Panther" is a bonafide box office smash, and its soundtrack is tearing up the charts, too.

"Black Panther: The Album" debuted atop the Billboard 200 this weekend after selling 154,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen Music.

That number understates the success of the album, a collection of songs curated by Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar. Billboard hasn't yet factored in the additional 61,300 copies sold over the weekend after the film came out.

To determine the number of copies sold, the music industry uses a formula that incorporates physical albums, digital albums, digital singles and song streams.

The album has been particularly big for streaming: Nielsen's data shows that the songs combined have been streamed nearly 190 million times since the album was released February 9. About 50 million of those streams were this weekend alone.

"This is much bigger than just a music release. It's much bigger than just a compilation album," said David Bakula, senior vice president of analytics at Nielsen Entertainment.