{"id":4837,"date":"2013-06-10T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T15:20:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T20:20:36","slug":"may-2013-comics-estimates-dollar-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/10\/may-2013-comics-estimates-dollar-orders\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2013 comics estimates: Dollar orders nearly double what they were 10 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There may not have been as many blockbuster titles selling into the six figures in the month of May \u2014 just two, versus five last year \u2014 but the Direct Market still managed to eke out a slight increase against what was a very hard comparative to beat. Click to see the estimated comics sales for May 2013.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

X-Men<\/i> #1<\/b><\/a>, the top seller at nearly 178,000 copies, is the second title by that nomenclature in just three years, readers will recall; this year’s version outsold the 2010 version<\/b><\/a> by more than 30,000 copies. (Though it still lagged behind the 1963 version<\/b><\/a> \u2014 which likely sold more than 200,000 copies \u2014 and, of course, the 1991 version, which at 8 million copies ordered was the best-selling comic book in history<\/b><\/a>. Or, at least, the most-ordered one!)<\/p>\n

An Adventure Time<\/i> original graphic novel<\/b><\/a> led the collected edition charts. In a change from what was the case for much of last year,
\ngraphic novel sales beneath 300th place performed significantly better
\nthan the top of the list; the Top 300 were off 5%, but the entire graphic novel category was up 1% overall.<\/p>\n

As noted on Friday<\/b><\/a>, a greater variety of publishers than usual appears to have contributed to sales this month. There were also some new publishers in the Top 300 comics list for the first time in a while: Black Mask<\/b> and Storm King<\/b>.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that this month’s $45.12 million in comics and graphic novel orders represents an increase of 90% over the $23.7 million ordered for the same month in 2003<\/b><\/a>. I think we can all reasonably agree that inflation has not doubled over the course of ten years, so there has definitely been substantial growth in the market.<\/p>\n

The aggregate sales:<\/p>\n

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

May 2013<\/a>: <\/b>6.97 million copies
\nVersus 1 year ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -5%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -1%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +22%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: unchanged
\nYEAR TO DATE: 34.69 million copies, +11% vs. 2012, +6% vs. 2008, +21% vs. 2003, unchanged vs. 1998<\/p>\n

ALL COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2013 versus one year ago this month: -2.62%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +12.25%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

May 2013: $25.4 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -1%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +10%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +61%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month: +50%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $124.88 million, +15% vs. 2012, +20% vs. 2008, +56% vs. 2003, +48% vs. 1998<\/p>\n

ALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2013 versus one year ago this month: +0.97%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +15.04%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

May 2013: $7.83 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -5%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: -11%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 50 vs. the Top 50: +14%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $39.38 million, +19% vs. 2012<\/p>\n

ALL TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2013 versus one year ago this month: +1%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +12.01%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

May 2013: $33.24 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -2%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +6%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +40%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $169.26 million, +16% vs. 2012<\/p>\n

ALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nMay 2013 versus one year ago this month: +0.98%<\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +14.07%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

May 2013: approximately $45.12 million (subject to revision)
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +1%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +23%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +90%
\nYEAR TO DATE: $208.17 million, +14% vs. 2012<\/p>\n

The average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.59; the average comic book
\nretailers ordered cost $3.64. The median and most common price for comics offered was $3.99. Click to see comics prices across time.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

You can see what was selling in comparative months of the past in our May Flashbacks column<\/b><\/a>,
\nwhich is now online. May was the 25th anniversary of the publication of V for Vendetta<\/i> #<\/b>1 by DC, among other notables.<\/p>\n

We’re in a slower stretch for Comichron posts as I’ve been busy with my own fiction projects (Overdraft: The Orion Offensive<\/b><\/i><\/a> and Star Wars: Kenobi<\/b><\/i><\/a>, which ships Aug. 27), but I have some interesting research that should be coming along later in the summer. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There may not have been as many blockbuster titles selling into the six figures in the month of May \u2014 just two, versus five last year \u2014 but the Direct Market still managed to eke out a slight increase against what was a very hard comparative to beat. Click to see the estimated comics sales … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,17],"class_list":["post-4837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2013-sales","tag-diamond-monthly-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837","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=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6459,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions\/6459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}