{"id":3785,"date":"2018-08-13T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T16:51:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T21:51:01","slug":"july-2018-comics-sales-estimates-batman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/13\/july-2018-comics-sales-estimates-batman\/","title":{"rendered":"July 2018 comics sales estimates: Batman #50 ships more than 441,000 copies, Spidey #1 289k"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As noted here Friday<\/a><\/b>, the\u00a0comics shop market made up considerable ground in July comparison with a weak July 2017, thanks to the Batman wedding storyline and several high-profile launches. Retailers ordered $44.64 million worth of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in the month; the year-to-date deficit, piled up in winter, was cut in half to less than 2%. Click to see the comics sales estimates from July 2017<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

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Both Marvel<\/b> and DC<\/b> contributed, combining for a dual market share of 70.69%, the highest proportion of the market seen since October 2011, right after the debut of the New 52. DC’s Batman<\/i> #50<\/a><\/b> led the comics list with nearly 441,000 copies shipped; it was the third regularly priced item of the year to top 400,000 copies.<\/p>\n

While DC announced both it and Catwoman<\/i> #1<\/a><\/b> would be made returnable owing to retailer concerns over the storyline and its premature revelation online, Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b> did not adjust the issues’ numbers downward for returnability. This is normal, in keeping with practices regarding comics that are not made returnable until after they’ve been ordered; comics become returnable after they’ve been ordered and\/or shipped all the time, and those items are not adjusted in tables. The end-of-year totals always account both for returns and for reorders; Batman #50 did lead comics in the reorder charts<\/a><\/b> twice during the month.<\/p>\n

Market share leader Marvel beat its July 2017 dollar sales by 16%, aided by Amazing Spider-Man<\/i> #1<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(more than 289,000 copies)\u00a0and Captain America <\/i>#1<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(more than 167,000 copies), among other launches. DC’s dollar sales were up 29% year over year, a figure exactly matched by IDW<\/b>, which followed up a June in which it had a recent-record-low number of new comic books on the shelves (19) with nearly three times as many, 56.<\/p>\n

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Die Die Die<\/i><\/b> #1<\/b><\/a>, which shipped without being solicited and went on sale July 11, landed in 174th place even though it was the highest-circulation Image book of the month. That’s because its initial shipment, reportedly equal to the 80,000 or so copies shipped of Robert Kirkman<\/b>‘s previous launch, Oblivion Song<\/i> #1<\/a><\/b>, was provided to retailers at no charge, and Diamond confirmed it had treated those copies as promotional items.<\/p>\n

Retailers reordered 9,975 copies of Die Die Die<\/i> #1 in July in the United States and Canada, and it is those copies that appear in Diamond’s tables. The number of copies in circulation, however, is more than 90,000.<\/p>\n

See the vital statistics, after the jump:<\/p>\n

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