Estimates have been calculated by Comichron for comic books shipped to North American retailers last month by Diamond Comic Distributors; click to see the estimates for November 2016.
As mentioned here on Friday, it was a softer month for a number of reasons. The volume of new comics releases went down from October despite the addition of a fifth shipping week, and a large holiday increase in graphic novel shipments wasn’t able to pick up all the slack.
It’s possible one factor boosting the number of October comics releases over November was Halloween Comicfest, now fairly well established as a promotion for which giveaway comics are released; while giveaway comics are not included in the unit sales charts, it could be that they are in the new release totals. Local Comic Shop Day items were included, and we see several of them made the graphic novel Top 300.
Batman #10 was the new comic with the largest numbers of copies shipped, while Paper Girls Vol. 2 led the graphic novel list. The 300th place title is the same one it was in October, Uncle Scrooge, and sales at that level are around 4,800 copies, which is a positive sign that sales in the lower tiers are hanging in there.
The aggregate totals and changes over time:
| TOP 300 COMICS SHIPPED (in UNITS) |
||
| November 2016 | 7.65 million copies | |
| 1 Year Ago | 8.3 million copies | -8% |
| 5 Years Ago | 7.01 million copies | +9% |
| 10 Years Ago | 7.96 million copies | -4% |
| 15 Years Ago | 6.43 million copies | +19% |
| 20 Years Ago | 11.06 million copies | -31% |
| ALL Comics Shipped in Month (Units) |
8.36 million copies | -6% |
| Year To Date | 81.96 million copies | |
| 1 Year Ago | 81.22 million copies | 1.0 |
| 5 Years Ago | 65.97 million copies | 24 |
| 10 Years Ago | 74.88 million copies | 9 |
| 15 Years Ago | 61.21 million copies | 34 |
| ALL Comics Shipped Year to Date (Units) |
90.83 million copies | +2% |
| TOP 300 COMICS SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| November 2016 | $29.32 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $34.73 million | -16% |
| 5 Years Ago | $24.34 million | +20% |
| 10 Years Ago | $24.6 million | +19% |
| 15 Years Ago | $18.51 million | +58% |
| 20 Years Ago | $27.43 million | +7% |
| ALL Comics Shipped during Month (Dollars) |
-13% | |
| Year To Date | $315.65 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $321.02 million | -2% |
| 5 Years Ago | $227.19 million | +39% |
| 10 Years Ago | $230.24 million | +37% |
| 15 Years Ago | $169.61 million | +86% |
| ALL Comics Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
+2% | |
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| November 2016 (Top 300 GNs) | $8.71 million | |
| November 2016 (Top 100 GNs) |
$5.12 million | |
| November 2016 (Top 50 GNs) |
$3.32 million | |
| November 2016 (Top 25 GNs) |
$2.12 million | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$7.12 million | +22% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago (Top 300) |
$7.16 million | +22% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago (Top 100) |
$4.64 million | +10% |
| Versus 15 Years Ago (Top 25) |
$2.45 million | -13% |
| ALL Graphic Novel Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
+22% | |
| Year To Date | $86.59 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $82.21 million | +5% |
| ALL Graphic Novel Dollars Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
+2% | |
| TOP 300 COMICS plus TOP GNs SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| November 2016 (including Top 300 GNs) |
$38.03 million | |
| November 2016 (including Top 300 GNs) |
$34.44 million | |
| November 2016 (including Top 100 GNs) |
$32.64 million | |
| November 2016 (including Top 25 GNs) |
$31.44 million | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$41.85 million | -9% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago (Top 300) |
$31.51 million | +9% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$29.24 million | 0% |
| Versus 15 Years Ago (Top 25) |
$20.96 million | +58% |
| All Comics & GNs Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
-10% | |
| Year To Date | $401.62 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $403.22 million | 0% |
| ALL Comics & GNs Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
-6% | |
| ALL COMICS AND GNs SHIPPED (in Dollars) |
||
| November 2016 | $49,891,767.00 | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$52.1 million | -4% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago |
$41.28 million | +21% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago |
$39.25 million | +27% |
| Year To Date | $535.86 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $526.27 million | +2% |
| TITLE SPECIFICS | ||
| TOP SELLING TITLE | ||
| Batman#10 | 120,901 copies at | $2.99 |
| 300th SELLING TITLE |
||
| Uncle Scrooge #20 |
4,799 copies at | $3.99 |
| NEW RELEASE VOLUME |
||
| New Comics Released |
518 | |
| New Graphic Novels Released |
436 | |
| New Magazines Released |
33 | |
| Total New Print Items Released |
987 |
Click to see comics prices across time.
Incidentally, that 20-year comparative mentioned earlier takes us back to November 1996, when Superman got married. Time flies like a Kryptonian!
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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