The sales estimates for comics ordered by North American comics shops in June 2017 have been computed, and we have a new most-ordered comic book of the year: out in advance of the Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 clocked in with orders of nearly 225,000 copies. Click to see the comics sales estimates for June 2017.
The issue was a needed bright spot, in a month we first reported on Friday: after a calendar-assisted rebound in the month of May, Marvel finished the first half of 2017 off $17.8 million at full retail in the Direct Market versus its performance in the same period in 2016, accounting for 94% of the market’s $19 million shortfall. Up until June, the market minus Marvel was still in positive territory for the year, but as the above figure suggests, it turned slightly negative.
Marvel’s share of June’s smaller month was large enough to boost its market share for all of 2017 by a third of a percentage point; look for our exclusive Year-to-Date market shares in the left column of our 2017 page, beside our aggregated Top 40 Comics for the year so far.
An important mark was crossed, for better or worse, in June: the average comic book offered in the Top 300 topped $4 for the first time, landing at $4.03 and setting a new record. Removing the Dark Knight III Master Race #9 Collector’s Edition, at $12.99, subtracts only two cents from the total; the median cover price offered was $3.99. Previously, the weighted comics average — all Top 300 comics dollars divided by units — had crossed the $4 mark several times, only to return; the weighted average in June was actually the lower of the two measures, at $4.01.
Graphic novels, led by The Wicked & The Divine Vol. 5, were off considerably, although we don’t note here nearly enough that Diamond isn’t the only distributor comics shops order from; while, for example, we showed $405 million in graphic novels moving through book channel distributors in our annual 2016 report, a small portion of that was sold to comics shops, augmenting what retailers bought from Diamond.
(Update: Peter Parker #1 was in the Marvel Collector Corps box for the month; we don’t know how many copies that kicked in, but it’s likely far fewer than Loot Crate.)
The vitals for the month:
| TOP 300 COMICS SHIPPED (in UNITS) |
||
| June 2017 | 7.13 million copies | |
| 1 Year Ago | 8.53 million copies | -16% |
| 5 Years Ago | 7.03 million copies | +1% |
| 10 Years Ago | 6.93 million copies | +3% |
| 15 Years Ago | 5.93 million copies | +20% |
| 20 Years Ago | 7.9 million copies | -10% |
| ALL Comics Shipped in Month (Units) |
7.82 million copies | -20% |
| Year To Date | 40.76 million copies | |
| 1 Year Ago | 40.04 million copies | 2.0 |
| 5 Years Ago | 38.32 million copies | 6 |
| 10 Years Ago | 42.13 million copies | -3 |
| 15 Years Ago | 33.56 million copies | 21 |
| ALL Comics Shipped Year to Date (Units) |
46.1 million copies | +3% |
| TOP 300 COMICS SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| June 2017 | $28.57 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $34.13 million | -16% |
| 5 Years Ago | $24.92 million | +15% |
| 10 Years Ago | $22.11 million | +29% |
| 15 Years Ago | $16.84 million | +70% |
| 20 Years Ago | $18.93 million | +51% |
| ALL Comics Shipped during Month (Dollars) |
-18% | |
| Year To Date | $156.71 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $159.74 million | -2% |
| 5 Years Ago | $133.58 million | +17% |
| 10 Years Ago | $132.58 million | +18% |
| 15 Years Ago | $95 million | +65% |
| ALL Comics Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
-4% | |
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| June 2017 (Top 300 GNs) | $7.03 million | |
| June 2017 (Top 100 GNs) |
$4.16 million | |
| June 2017 (Top 50 GNs) |
$2.58 million | |
| June 2017 (Top 25 GNs) |
$1.62 million | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$9.45 million | -26% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago (Top 300) |
$7.46 million | -6% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago (Top 100) |
$4.85 million | -14% |
| Versus 15 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$2.95 million | -13% |
| ALL Graphic Novel Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
-28% | |
| Year To Date | $44.98 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $49.21 million | -9% |
| ALL Graphic Novel Dollars Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
-13% | |
| TOP 300 COMICS plus TOP GNs SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| June 2017 (including Top 300 GNs) |
$35.6 million | |
| June 2017 (including Top 300 GNs) |
$32.74 million | |
| June 2017 (including Top 100 GNs) |
$31.15 million | |
| June 2017 (including Top 25 GNs) |
$30.2 million | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$43.58 million | -18% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago (Top 300) |
$32.37 million | +1% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$26.96 million | +6% |
| Versus 15 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$19.79 million | +70% |
| All Comics & GNs Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
-21% | |
| Year To Date | $201.3 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $208.33 million | -3% |
| ALL Comics & GNs Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
-7% | |
| ALL COMICS AND GNs SHIPPED (in Dollars) |
||
| June 2017 | $46,086,473.00 | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$58.59 million | -21% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago |
$40.47 million | +14% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago |
$35.08 million | +31% |
| Year To Date | $261.181 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $280.169 million | -7% |
| TITLE SPECIFICS | ||
| TOP SELLING COMIC BOOK | ||
| All New Wolverine #21 |
38,500 copies at | $3.99 |
| 50th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #1 |
224,620 copies at | $4.99 |
| 100th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Black Panther #15 |
25,466 copies at | $3.99 |
| 150th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| U.S. Avengers #7 |
15,664 copies at | $3.99 |
| 200th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Rose #3 | 10,789 copies at | $3.99 |
| 300th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Savage Things #4 |
4,739 copies at | $3.99 |
| NEW RELEASE VOLUME |
||
| New Comics Released |
502 | |
| New Graphic Novels Released |
322 | |
| New Magazines Released |
23 | |
| Total New Print Items Released |
847 | |
| PRICING | ||
| Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 |
$4.03 | |
| Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders |
$4.01 | |
| Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 25 |
$4.03 | |
| Median Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 |
$3.99 | |
| Most Common Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 |
$3.99 |
This is, as noted above, my 250th consecutive monthly distributor sales report, since starting back in September 1996. I already wrote a bit about that last year when I hit 20 full years, but this is comics and we celebrate round numbers around here. There are actually more than 250 monthly pages as we're increasingly working backwards to fill in more gaps.
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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