{"id":4762,"date":"2014-03-17T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T15:03:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T20:03:59","slug":"february-2014-comics-sales-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/17\/february-2014-comics-sales-estimates\/","title":{"rendered":"February 2014 comics sales estimates now online"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/CCBatman28\"The final comics sales estimates for February are out from Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b><\/a>,
\nand as reported here on Friday, winter plus a lighter slate of releases
\nappears to have kept orders low during the month. Comics shops in North
\nAmerica ordered close to $37 million in new comic
\nbooks, graphic novels, and magazines in February, down 6.71% from a year
\nago. The figure is still up 3% from February 2012. Click to see the
\nsales estimates for comics ordered in February 2014<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

One
\nmajor difference between this month’s numbers and last month’s appears
\nis the absence of a big-ticket title in the upper ranks like last
\nmonth’s Detective<\/i> #27<\/b><\/a>. On the other hand, Marvel’s $75 Infinity<\/b><\/i><\/a> hardcover made the top 10 for graphic novels, helping that category to narrowly beat its 2013 total.<\/p>\n

The Top 300 comic books had orders of 5.92 million copies, the lowest figure since January 2012<\/b><\/a>. However, the figure is 5% higher than five years ago in February, and 10% higher than 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

It’s
\nnoteworthy that almost the exact same number of comic books sold within
\nthe Top 300 in February 2014 as sold fifteen years earlier, in February
\n1999. On one hand, 1999 was year near the pit of the comics collapse of
\nthe last 1990s and nothing to shoot for \u2014 but on the other hand, it
\ntook a\u00a0 larger number of comics shops to sell those units back then, so
\ntoday’s comics shops are selling relatively more units. Further, while
\nthe sales at the top of the charts were more or less comparable then and
\nnow \u2014 130,000 versus 114,000 now \u2014 the sales at the bottom of the
\ncharts are much better. The 300th place comic book in February 1999 sold
\n1,157 copies to retailers; this February, the title at that level sold
\n4,263 copies.<\/p>\n

The aggregate changes:<\/p>\n

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

February 2014<\/a>: <\/b>5.92 million copies
\nVersus 1 year ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -16%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +5%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +10%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: unchanged
\nYEAR TO DATE: 12.08 million copies, -12% vs. 2013, +7% vs. 2009, +15% vs. 2004, unchanged vs. 1999
\nALL COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b>
\nFebruary 2014 versus one year ago this month: -14.77%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -11.18%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

February 2014: $21.71 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -14%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +13%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +42%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month: +43%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $45.02 million, -9% vs. 2013, +17% vs. 2009, +51% vs. 2004, +46% vs. 1999
\nALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b>
\nFebruary 2014 versus one year ago this month: -10.39%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE:<\/b> -5.53%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

February 2014: $6.18 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -5%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +29%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: +43%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: +25%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $11.98 million, -13% vs. 2013
\nALL TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nFebruary 2014 versus one year ago this month: +2.83%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -6.69%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

February 2014: $27.86 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -12%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +4%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +30%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +53%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $57 million, -10% vs. 2013
\nALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nFebruary 2014 versus one year ago this month: -6.71%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: -5.89%<\/b>
\n—<\/p>\n

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

February 2014: approximately $36.92 million (subject to revision)
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -7%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +29%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +63%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $75.86 million, -6% vs. 2013<\/b><\/p>\n

RELEASES<\/b><\/span>
\nNew comic books released: 443<\/b>
\nNew graphic novels released: 224<\/b>
\nNew magazines released: 25 <\/b>
\nAll new releases: 692<\/b><\/p>\n

The average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.65; the average comic book
\nretailers ordered cost $3.67. The median and most common price for comics offered was $3.99. Click to see comics prices across time.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final comics sales estimates for February are out from Diamond Comic Distributors, and as reported here on Friday, winter plus a lighter slate of releases appears to have kept orders low during the month. Comics shops in North America ordered close to $37 million in new comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in February, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4763,"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-4762","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\/4762","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=4762"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6438,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762\/revisions\/6438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}