It was a #1 hit, yes, but the full US chart run paints a different story:
1-6-8-10-10-11-12-16-30-43-52-75-59-66-76-88-100
Didn't even spend a full 20 weeks on the Hot 100.
Its international peak positions aren't that impressive either:
#4 Australia
#16 Austria
#1 Canada
#31 France
#23 Germany
#8 Japan
#1 New Zealand
#6 UK
And it failed to make the top 40 on any major year-end chart, despite being released at the beginning of the year. #50 in Canada was its highest year-end position.
It was a #1 hit, yes, but the full US chart run paints a different story:
1-6-8-10-10-11-12-16-30-43-52-75-59-66-76-88-100
Didn't even spend a full 20 weeks on the Hot 100.
Its international peak positions aren't that impressive either:
#4 Australia
#16 Austria
#1 Canada
#31 France
#23 Germany
#8 Japan #1 New Zealand
#6 UK
And it failed to make the top 40 on any major year-end chart, despite being released at the beginning of the year. #50 in Canada was its highest year-end position.
It may have debuted number 1 in NZ, but the sold fell out of the NZ chart the next week, and only charted one week here. Didn't even go gold.
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I'd say it was a moderate bit - it started off with huge hype following the circus era, but after a month the song fizzled out. It's a shame, because the song is amazing, one of Britney's best singles, the music video was on point (despite being released weeks later than it should have), and it was ahead of music trends by at least 6-12 months.
Only on ATRL would a song that hit number one while breaking a record at the time be considered a flop.
