{"id":5072,"date":"2012-07-09T18:27:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T18:27:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T16:03:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T21:03:01","slug":"full-june-2012-comics-sales-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/09\/full-june-2012-comics-sales-estimates\/","title":{"rendered":"Full June 2012 comics sales estimates online"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

All eyes in the comics industry are turning to California and Comic-Con International, which is starting in a little more than 48 hours; I’ll be heading there myself. (My own signing schedule is here<\/b><\/a>). But first, some important business, as Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b><\/a> has released the full data for comics-shop sales for June 2012. The Comics Chronicles<\/b><\/i> first reported on the monthly, second-quarter, and first-half of 2012 figures on Friday<\/b><\/a>, and much of that information is recapped below. But the full charts are now available; click to see the full Comichron comics sales estimates for June 2012<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

As mentioned previously, orders by Direct Market comics shops in North America are up more than 18% year-to-date through June, by contrast with last year, when they were down by 8%. Retailers have already ordered more material through June \u2014 nearly $223 million in retail dollars\u2014 than they did in last year through July<\/b><\/i>. Click to see a summation of 2012 so far<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retailers are estimated to have ordered $40.5 million in comic books and
\ntrade paperbacks from Diamond in the month, a sum that brings the
\nsecond quarter orders to more than $20 million higher than the same
\nthree-month period last year. For the year to date, all Direct Market
\nsales are more than $34 million ahead of the first half of 2011.<\/p>\n

But as discussed on Friday, the comparison observers may be more
\ninterested in isn’t between the first six months of this year and the
\nfirst six months of 2011. Rather, how has the Direct Market fared compared with the last six months of 2011, which
\nincluded the DC reboot? Direct Market orders were $224.92 million from
\nJuly 2011 to December 2011 \u2014 so even with the reboot titles reaching
\ndouble-digit issue numbers, the market is down less than 1% from that
\nblockbuster six-month period. The reasons are several: Marvel has Avengers Vs. X-Men<\/i> on the playing field, and graphic novels are rebounding with the DC hardcovers and Walking Dead<\/i>. But the fact we can compare at all is significant, because
\nthe second half of the year has outperformed the previous first half
\nevery year for the last 10 years \u2014 and by an average of 10%.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Comic book unit sales are up significantly; with June’s orders, retailers have bought 38.32 million copies of the Top 300 periodicals this year. That’s more than 6 million copies more than the first six months of 2011. Again, Marvel’s Avengers Vs. X-Men #6<\/b><\/a> led the charts; sell-in numbers on the title continue to increase from month to month. (Click to see a list of all monthly top sellers across time<\/b><\/a>.) The four DC Before Watchmen<\/i><\/b><\/a> debut issues landed in fifth through eight place.<\/p>\n

June 2011<\/b><\/a> was a five-week month versus four shipping weeks
\nfor June 2012, and the beats were a little smaller than we’ve seen \u2014 the 300th-place issue<\/b><\/a> sold just over 3,300 copies, a bit of a dip from the last four-week month in April. But
\nperiodical units and dollars were still up double-digits. On the trade paperback side, the release of Walking Dead Vol. 16: A Larger World<\/i><\/b><\/a> topped the charts. Both the Top 300 comics and Top 300 graphic novel category
\ntotals are doing several percentage points better than Diamond’s figures
\nfor the entire category; the real gap is with trades, where sales for the Top 300
\nwere up 14% but the whole category was only up 2.51%. That means more of the dollar volume was in the toplist this month; the top three trades rang up nearly a million dollars on their own.<\/p>\n

The aggregate totals:<\/p>\n

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

June 2012<\/a>: <\/b>7.03 million copies
\nVersus 1 year ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +17%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +1%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +19%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -11%
\nQ2 2012: 20.43 million copies, +23% vs. Q2 2011
\nYEAR TO DATE: 38.32 million copies, +20% vs. 2011, -9% vs. 2007, +14% vs. 2002, -24% vs. 1997<\/p>\n

ALL COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b>
\nJune 2012 versus one year ago this month: +12.14%<\/b>
\nQ2 2012 versus Q2 2011: +23.34 <\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +19.21%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

June 2012: $24.92 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +21%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month:+13%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +48%
\nVersus 15 years ago this month: +32%
\nQ2 2012: $71.98 million, +25% vs. Q2 2011<\/p>\n

YEAR TO DATE: $133.58 million, +20% vs. 2011, +1% vs. 2007, +41% vs. 2002, +12% vs. 1997<\/p>\n

ALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b>
\nJune 2012 versus one year ago this month: +14.97%<\/b>
\nQ2 2012 versus Q2 2011: +15.81% <\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +20.47%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

June 2012: $7.46 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +14%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: -1%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 50 vs. the Top 50: +67%
\nQ2 2012: $22.49 million, +29% vs. Q2 2011<\/p>\n

YEAR TO DATE: $40.62 million, +25% vs. 2011<\/p>\n

ALL TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nJune 2012 versus one year ago this month: +2.51%<\/b>
\nQ2 2012 versus Q2 2011: +23.33% <\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +13.49%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

June 2012: $32.37 million
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +19%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +10%
\nVersus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 50 TPBs: +26%
\nQ2 2012: $94.47 million, +26% vs. 2011<\/p>\n

YEAR TO DATE: $174.2 million, +21% vs. 2011<\/p>\n

ALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b>
\nJune 2012 versus one year ago this month: +10.74%<\/b>
\nQ2 2012 versus Q2 2011: +18.14% <\/b>
\nYEAR TO DATE: +18.16%<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

June 2012: approximately $40.5 million (subject to revision)
\nVersus 1 year ago this month: +11%
\nVersus 5 years ago this month: +15%<\/p>\n

Q2 2012: $121.18 million, +23% vs. 2011<\/p>\n

YEAR TO DATE: $222.99 million, +18% vs. 2011<\/p>\n

The average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.54, with the average comic
\nbook ordered by retailers costing $3.54. $3.50 was the median price of comics, and $2.99 was the most
\ncommon price.<\/p>\n

At present, a completely flat second half of 2012 would bring the year
\nin nearly at $450 million, or up 8%. It would also be the best year of
\nthe century so far. But again, even in our worst years, the second half of the year has always<\/i> beaten the first half \u2014 at least, in the 21st Century \u2014 so a letdown in the second half of 2012 would be something new. We’ll see whether Walking Dead #100,<\/i><\/b> “Marvel Now,” and the other new things in the mix can keep the momentum going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All eyes in the comics industry are turning to California and Comic-Con International, which is starting in a little more than 48 hours; I’ll be heading there myself. (My own signing schedule is here). But first, some important business, as Diamond Comic Distributors has released the full data for comics-shop sales for June 2012. The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-5072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-diamond-monthly-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072","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=5072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6502,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions\/6502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}