{"id":4460,"date":"2016-04-11T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-31T19:03:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T00:03:19","slug":"march-2016-comics-sales-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/11\/march-2016-comics-sales-estimates\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2016 Comics Sales Estimates online; Batman tops 163k copies, Walking Dead Vol. 25 sells 19k"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/CCBat50\"<\/div>\n

The full report on North American comics shop orders in the month of March has been reported by Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b><\/a>, and as reported here on Friday<\/b><\/a>, a very strong month for graphic novel orders was enough to erase
\nthe shortfall during the first two months of the year. The first quarter
\nended up 1.32%, with the graphic novel portion up 12.67%. Click to see the sales estimates for comics ordered in March 2016<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Batman<\/i> #50<\/a><\/b>, priced at\u00a0 $5.99 price, led the comics chart with orders topping 163,000 copies, followed by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers <\/i>#1<\/b><\/a> with nearly 120,000 copies shipped. Many variant covers<\/b><\/a> helped the Boom Studios<\/b> release, and while there were launch parties that provided a number of free copies to retailers, judging from the quantity\/dollar ranking split those copies do not appear to have impacted the title’s final placement in the charts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Walking Dead Vol. 25<\/i><\/b><\/a> topped the graphic novel list in its debut month with more than 19,000 copies shipped to retailers. The performance of top-sellers and a significant number of high-profile hardcovers combined with a larger volume of new releases to result in graphic novel sales in March being up 36.36%: deep discounting does not appear to have played as much of a role this time out.<\/p>\n

Overall, performance on the periodical side continues to lag graphic novels. In particular, we
\nare continuing to see degradation in the depth of the market when it comes to new comics: this
\nmonth’s 300th place title sold 4,269 copies, which is the lowest such
\nfigure for a month with five shipping weeks since February 2012. Click
\nto see the sales of 300th-place titles across time<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

We have a new record for the average cover price of all comics placing in the Top 300: $3.96, eclipsing the previous high by a cent. The average is still flirting with topping the modal $3.99 level, which would be a significant benchmark to cross.<\/p>\n

The aggregate changes are as follows:<\/p>\n

TOP 300 COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b><\/span>
\nMarch 2016<\/a>: <\/b>6.09 million copies
\nVersus 1 year ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -11%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +1%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -14%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +22%
\nYEAR TO DATE: 18.45 million copies, -11% vs. 2015, +19% vs. 2011, -1% vs. 2006, +21% vs. 2001
\nALL COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b>
\nMarch 2016 versus one year ago this month: -8.45%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -9.16%<\/b><\/p>\n

TOP 300 COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b><\/div>\n

March 2016: $24.72 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -3%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +20%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +13%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month: +79%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $72.8 million, -9% vs. 2015, +35% vs. 2011, +29% vs. 2006, +75% vs. 2001
\nALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b>
\nMarch 2016 versus one year ago this month: +0.53%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -3.4% <\/b><\/p>\n

TOP 300 TRADE PAPERBACK DOLLAR SALES<\/b><\/div>\n

March 2016: $8.67 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +4%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +16%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: +4%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: +96%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $24.49 million, +30% vs. 2015
\nALL TRADE PAPERBACK SALES<\/b>
\nMarch 2016 versus one year ago this month: +36.36%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +12.67%<\/b><\/p>\n

TOP 300 COMICS + TOP 300 TRADE PAPERBACK DOLLAR SALES<\/b><\/div>\n

March 2016: $33.39 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +4%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +16%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +4%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +96%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $96.67 million, -2% vs. 2015
\nALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK SALES<\/b>
\nMarch 2016 versus one year ago this month: +11.04%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +1.32%<\/b><\/p>\n

OVERALL DIAMOND SALES (including all comics, trades, and magazines)<\/b><\/div>\n

March 2016: approximately $46.58 million (subject to revision)
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +11%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +35%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +34%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $129.58 million, +1 vs. 2015<\/b><\/p>\n

RELEASES<\/b><\/span>
\nNew comic books released: 488<\/b>
\nNew graphic novels released: 371<\/b>
\nNew magazines released: 81<\/b>
\nAll new releases: 940<\/b><\/p>\n

As noted, the average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.96; the average comic book
\nretailers ordered cost $4.06. The median and most common price for comics offered was $3.99. Click to see comics prices across time.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Another first quarter weathered. Comichron reminds readers that because of lower volumes, the winter months tend not to impact the end-of-year results as much as other seasons do. But while Winter 2016 has not dug a hole for the industry, neither has it given it much of a head-start. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The full report on North American comics shop orders in the month of March has been reported by Diamond Comic Distributors, and as reported here on Friday, a very strong month for graphic novel orders was enough to erase the shortfall during the first two months of the year. The first quarter ended up 1.32%, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,17],"class_list":["post-4460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2016-sales","tag-diamond-monthly-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6373,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions\/6373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}