These are some wonderful details I found on ONTD by a Britney web investigator.

TOTAL BLACKOUT SALES AFTER FIVE WEEKS OF RELEASE

Blackout Album Sales Worldwide: 1.1 Million (540,000 from U.S.)
Black Albums Shipped Worldwide: 2+ Million
Gimme More Single Sales: 2.5+ Million (840,000 from U.S.)
Piece of Me Single Sales: .5 Million (200,000 from U.S.)
Other Blackout Single Sales: 200,000

RECORD LABELS MAKE AN AVERAGE OF 3 dollars an album so
PROFIT: 6,000,000+
digital sales: 4,000,000
PROFIT: 10,000,000

- Cost of Gimme More video: 25,000
- Cost of Piece of Me video: 500,000
- Misc. costs: 2 million
-----------------------
TOTAL PROFIT: $7,475,000

Researched by Jahunka | Source | | Source | Source

It really does have some amazing numbers. I do believe the profit margin is a little off considering it would cost a lot more then $2 million to make an album of this caliber with the following:

« an erratic artist who cancels recording times and has to be in the studio after hours so it costs more
ACTUAL COST: Approx $1 million

« the Timbaland knock-off apprentice beats
ACTUAL COST: Approx $500,000

« a team of writers
ACTUAL COST: Approx 500,000

« the hours and hours of time spent by a team of professional engineers and producers in the post-production studio
ACTUAL COST: Approx $1 million

« photo shoot costs for album cover
ACTUAL COST: Approx $50,000

« legal action against Perez and others
ACTUAL COST: Approx $350,000

« actual CD production costs
ACTUAL COST: Approx $1 million

« advertising
ACTUAL COST: Approx $500,000

According to these numbers the album cost $4,900,000 + the cost of the videos mentioned above. Total of Blackout expenses: $5.5 million

EXPENSES: $5,500,000
REVENUE: $10,000,000
PROFIT: $4,500,000

It means they almost doubled their money so far and they still have a year to churn out singles. However we do not know how much Brit was paid so that is another expense and how much she gets off the top of the profit as well.

While Blackout is #53 this week on the Billboard chart.