{"id":4185,"date":"2017-07-14T16:12:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T18:22:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T23:22:10","slug":"june-2017-sales-down-against-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/14\/june-2017-sales-down-against-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"June 2017 sales down against giant Rebirth month from last year; Spectacular Spidey snags top spot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last June was the biggest month in comics in 20+ years,<\/a><\/b> thanks to Rebirth<\/a><\/i><\/b> and Civil War II<\/a><\/i><\/b> \u2014 and the fifth week giveth, the fifth week taketh away. Pick your explanation, but the totals were very definitely down in June 2017, according to a report issued this morning by Diamond Comic Distributors<\/a><\/b>. Comichron’s analysis puts comic shop orders of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines at $46.09 million in the four-week month, down considerably from last year’s record $58.59 million<\/a><\/b> in a month with one additional shipping week. The comparative was always going to be extremely hard to beat, which is why we warned you about it early<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

The news isn’t all dire, so let’s hit the brighter spots first: Under the hood, if you divide sales by the number of weeks in the month, the individual weeks in June were the strongest all year to date. That $46.09 million divides to $11.52 million per shipping week, the highest total since October. The second quarter beat the first quarter this year by 7.84% \u2014 as it should in any kind of normal situation \u2014 and 2017’s new comics units so far, though infused with overship and 25-cent Image<\/b> copies, are up from the year-to-date last year by 2.56%.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, that’s the only category that’s up for the year. Comics dollars are slightly off, and combined comics, graphic novels, and magazines stand at $261.18 million for the year, off from $280.16 million in the more editorially front-loaded 2016. We were off even more, though, by this time in June 2011, and DC’s New 52<\/b> relaunch brought the market almost to even by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

(Update:<\/b> Looking more closely, just three issues <\/b>last June \u2014 Civil War II #1<\/a>, Batman #1<\/a>, <\/b>and Batman Rebirth #1<\/a><\/b> \u2014 accounted for $3.72 million, or nearly a third of the margin last June had over this June. Blockbusters still matter \u2014 or at least, the absence of them does.)<\/i><\/p>\n

The big laggard this year continues to be graphic novels, possibly in part a reflection of a weaker fall and winter last year for new releases, since now is when those comics are being collected. There may also be a dynamic of retailers keeping their powder dry, as July has a heavy release slate coming. Flying Colors<\/b>‘ Joe Field tweeted yesterday about the challenges involved with ordering for July<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

The aggregate sales:<\/p>\n

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