{"id":3931,"date":"2018-04-06T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T17:24:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T22:24:11","slug":"march-comics-orders-down-on-fewer-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/06\/march-comics-orders-down-on-fewer-new\/","title":{"rendered":"March comics orders down on fewer new releases, but quarterly losses diminish; Metal, Doomsday Clock finish 1-2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Update: The estimated sales are now online<\/a><\/b>.)<\/p>\n

\"See<\/span><\/div>\n

Last week, I tweeted<\/a> <\/b>that the fact that March 2017<\/a><\/b> was a month with five New Comic Book Days instead of four meant that this March’s comics and graphic novel sales to the Direct Market would very likely be down in comparison, as it had one less Wednesday. But I also noted that January and February’s performances had been just good enough that even if sales remained flat from February to March, it would represent an improvement in the overall quarter’s trajectory. March’s orders managed that feat and a little more, according to my analysis of data released today by Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Diamond shipped $38.48 million in comics, graphic novels, and magazines in an especially wintry March, down an ugly 16%; graphic novels were again produced the biggest shortfall, down 22% in dollars. The fifth week, however, explains more than usual this time out. Almost a hundred fewer new comics were released this March<\/b>, a reduction in new-release volume of 18%; all<\/i> the major publisher slates were smaller, and\u00a0IDW<\/b> went from 60 periodical releases in the month to 40. Graphic novel slates were also 14% smaller overall.<\/p>\n

March’s new comics unit sales stood at 6.55 million copies, down 12% \u2014 but the release slate shrank more, so the ones that did release punched their weight a little better. March was up 5% over February, exceeding the aforementioned target \u2014 and it nearly caught January, which is where our extra week this quarter went. Overall shipments of comics and graphic novels for the quarter totaled $114.45 million, down a little less than 9% \u2014 and, as noted above, that single digit is something we’ve been looking to see since the first in a string of quarterly declines at the end of 2016:<\/p>\n

Year-over-year changes in Diamond’s
\ncomics\/graphic novel sales to the Direct Market<\/b><\/div>\n
1st Quarter 2017: -3.01%<\/div>\n
2nd Quarter 2017: -10.01%<\/div>\n
3rd Quarter 2017: -15.86%<\/div>\n
4th Quarter 2017: -10.37%<\/div>\n
1st Quarter 2017: -8.92%<\/b><\/div>\n
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So for the pessimists: things are still getting worse.\u00a0<\/b>But for the optimists: since last fall, they’ve been getting worse by progressively smaller amounts. <\/b>There’s an easy explanation for that: DC<\/b>‘s Rebirth event made 2016’s numbers very hard to hit \u2014 but by this time last year, that event had already seen its biggest numbers, and while\u00a0Marvel<\/b>‘s slowdown was underway, it had yet to see its nastiest declines. This quarter just past, DC’s overall sales were up slightly year over year, with\u00a0Dynamite<\/b>‘s up a bit more; Marvel remains off year-over-year, but it’s slightly outpacing the overall market.<\/p>\n

The second quarter of 2017, incidentally, saw $135.5 million in shipments; while that may seem a stretch to hit this time out, increases of $20 million from the first to the second quarter have happened this decade. Even 2017 saw $10 million more in product shipped in the second quarter than in the first. People can actually get to the stores (unless you live where I do, where we had 14″ of snow on Monday) \u2014 and as DC revealed<\/a><\/b> on Thursday, Action Comics<\/i> #1000<\/a><\/b> will account for at least $4 million on its own in April.<\/p>\n

The monthly and quarterly comparatives:<\/p>\n