{"id":4722,"date":"2014-06-16T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T14:53:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T19:53:38","slug":"may-2014-comics-sales-estimates-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/16\/may-2014-comics-sales-estimates-now\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2014 comics sales estimates now online; Amazing Spidey #1 up to 545k"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/CCOrig1\"<\/div>\n

As first reported Friday, Marvel’s Original Sin<\/i> #1<\/b><\/a> led the market in a month that saw the smallest number of new comic book releases in six months. That smaller slate, plus one less shipping week, combined to make May’s comic sales to retailers dip slightly year-over-year, according to data released by Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b><\/a>. You can find the Comichron estimates for comics sold to retailers in May 2014 here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Comic shops purchased a little over $43 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in May,
\ndown 4.52% versus the year before; periodical sales were down only 2%.\u00a0Year-to-date sales are now essentially flat at a little less than $208
\nmillion, down about a third of a million dollars versus the same period
\nin 2013.<\/p>\n

Amazing Spider-Man<\/i> Vol. 3 #1<\/b><\/a> from April added another 13,240 copies sold, bringing its year-to-date total to more than 545,800 copies. I would expect that the May totals account for any copies returned on account of damage, so the fact that the number is positive means that adjustment has been made and absorbed. Issue #2 of the series had orders of close to 124,000 copies, so that suggests the\u00a0 sales level of the title going forward.<\/p>\n

The aggregate changes:<\/p>\n

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

May 2014<\/a>: <\/b>6.65 million copies
\nVersus 1 year ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -5%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +18%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +6%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +2%
\nYEAR TO DATE: 31.93 million copies, -8% vs. 2013, +10% vs. 2009, +8% vs. 2004, +2 vs. 1999
\nALL COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2014 versus one year ago this month: -6%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -6.72%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

May 2014: $25.06 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -1%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +34%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +41%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month: +48%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $121.02 million, -3% vs. 2013, +24% vs. 2009, +44% vs. 2004, +51% vs. 1999
\nALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2014 versus one year ago this month: -2.01%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE:<\/b> -1.13%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

May 2014: $7.26 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -7%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +6%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: +39%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: +112%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $35.47 million, -10% vs. 2013
\nALL TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2014 versus one year ago this month: -9.47%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +1.96%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

May 2014: $32.32 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -3%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +16%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +28%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +60%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $156.5 million, -5% vs. 2013
\nALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2014 versus one year ago this month: -4.52%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -0.16%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

May 2014: approximately $43.08 million (subject to revision)
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -5%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +20%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +79%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $207.85 million, unchanged vs. 2013<\/b><\/p>\n

RELEASES<\/b><\/span>
\nNew comic books released: 427<\/b>
\nNew graphic novels released: 246<\/b>
\nNew magazines released: 18<\/b>
\nAll new releases: 691<\/b><\/p>\n

That’s a pretty big drop in the number of magazines released.<\/p>\n

The average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.73; the average comic book
\nretailers ordered cost $3.77. The median and most common price for comics offered was $3.99. Click to see comics prices across time.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

June’s sales will give us the halftime report for 2014: Last year’s first half<\/b><\/a> came in at just under $250 million for all comics, trade paperbacks, and magazines sold, which means about a $42 million June is necessary to top it. Both this June and last June are four week months and the market had sales of $43 million in May, so the odds of a positive score at halftime are favorable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As first reported Friday, Marvel’s Original Sin #1 led the market in a month that saw the smallest number of new comic book releases in six months. That smaller slate, plus one less shipping week, combined to make May’s comic sales to retailers dip slightly year-over-year, according to data released by Diamond Comic Distributors. You … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[72,17],"class_list":["post-4722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2014-sales","tag-diamond-monthly-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722","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=4722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6430,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions\/6430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}