{"id":4198,"date":"2017-06-19T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T18:22:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T23:22:54","slug":"may-2017-comics-sales-estimates-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/19\/may-2017-comics-sales-estimates-online\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2017 comics sales estimates online; combining orders again gives Batman top slot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I mentioned here on Friday<\/a><\/b> that, as in April, orders\u00a0for DC<\/b>‘s two “Button” issues of Batman<\/b><\/i> and Flash<\/i><\/b>\u00a0would likely be split in reporting between the $3.99 lenticular and $2.99 standard-edition covers \u2014 and that posed the prospect that one or both of those issues would again edge past the reported top-seller, Marvel’s Secret Empire, <\/b>once orders were combined. That proved to be the case; click to see the comics order estimates for<\/b> May 2017<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The original breakdowns are preserved in that list, but we can see that shipments of both versions of Batman<\/i> #22<\/a> <\/b>to comics shops in North America totaled nearly 186,900 copies (Edited<\/b>: we’d initially used the numbers from #21)<\/i>, well over Secret Empire <\/i>#1<\/a><\/b>‘s total of more than 157,500. And Flash<\/i> #22<\/a><\/b> hops up to second place, with a combined total of more than 163,700 copies. Again, the division of differently-priced variants is a long-standing practice<\/a><\/b> in the charts; retailers, whom these charts are for, find knowing the breakdown of differently priced covers useful to know.<\/p>\n

That said, Comichron<\/b> has launched a running top-seller list for the year to date, combining the data from individual months; this can be found on the main 2017 page<\/a><\/b>. There, we do fuse the entries, as we’ve done for years on our Comics of the Century<\/a><\/b> and other pages.<\/p>\n

The top dollar book on Diamond’s charts, Venom <\/i>#150<\/a><\/b>, at nearly $6, would keep that status even if the Batman dollar orders were merged; Secret Empire <\/i>#1 would remain the second-place dollar book. There’s evidence of overshipping on the first two issues of\u00a0All New Guardians of the Galaxy<\/a><\/i><\/b>, which saw splits between their dollar and unit sales rankings. Meanwhile, the $9.99\u00a0Deadpool<\/i>\u00a0#30<\/a><\/b>\u00a0is the seventh-highest dollar earner, while being only the 58th bestselling issue.
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As noted in the preliminary report, May’s orders represented an improvement over the previous year, thanks in part to a fifth shipping week \u2014 but we also see that lower tiers on the chart \u2014 200th place and below \u2014 set some better-than-expected sales levels even for five-week months. (Be sure to check out our new sales charts for these sales levels: 1st,<\/a> 50th<\/a>, 100th<\/a>, 150th<\/a>, 200th<\/a>, <\/b>and 300th place<\/a><\/b>.)<\/p>\n

On the graphic novel side, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 3<\/a><\/i><\/b> hardcover, at $100, was the top book in dollar terms. The dollar top-ten is populated by several other big-ticket books.<\/p>\n

There was some deep-discounting of older hardcovers evident in the charts, but not a whole lot; enough to contribute to the ten-point split in units versus dollars on Diamond’s percentage change charts for the month. Diamond shipped 14% more graphic novels this May versus last, but only earned 4% more dollars.<\/p>\n

The vital statistics for the month:<\/p>\n

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