{"id":5205,"date":"2011-10-07T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T19:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T16:33:50","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T21:33:50","slug":"dc-reboot-boosts-september-2011-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/07\/dc-reboot-boosts-september-2011-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"DC reboot boosts September 2011 unit sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The preliminary comics order data for the direct market in September 2011 is in from Diamond<\/b><\/a>, and it shows the DC reboot led to a double-digit increase in comics unit sales. The overall market netted out down 1%, however, as graphic novel orders sank against strong comparatives \u2014 Scott Pilgrim<\/b><\/i> and Walking Dead<\/b><\/i> were drawing very well at this point last year, and while sales for September 2010 were down slightly against a very strong September 2009<\/b><\/a>, it was still one of the strongest months of 2010.<\/p>\n

The rankings are further impacted by the fact that 41 of DC’s titles were made returnable, and by custom Diamond has reduced those titles’ rankings in the tables. Click to see the Top 100 comics and graphic novels for September 2011<\/b><\/a>; the affected titles are marked by asterisks. Comichron<\/b><\/i>\u00a0believes the figures have been reduced by around 10% for ranking purposes and that the number of comic books which did reach the market is actually higher by more than 100,000 copies; just by adding up the index numbers of the returnable titles, we add another book the size of first-place Batman Vol. 2 #<\/b><\/i>1<\/b> to the mix. We don’t know yet the actual sales for that title \u2014 full estimates will be along next week. The true sales for the DC titles will be reflected in the sales charts that Diamond releases at the end of the year, but from my conversations with retailers and various insiders, it is not expected that there will be many returns.<\/p>\n

So the real location of the asterisked titles in the ranking is in a range starting at the order index number, and going up as much as 11.11%. (That’s because while 100 minus 10% equals 90, to get back to 100 again you must add 11.11% of 90.) I do not believe that the market share and comparative figures have been reduced by this adjustment for returnability, but if they were, it would put the real September overall at close to dead-even or slightly up. (Update<\/b>: I have received confirmation that only the unit sales rankings saw the reduction applied. So the aggregate and market share figures reflect all comics shipped, although some unsold returnable comics could be credited back to retailers in later months.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Regardless, the third quarter is<\/i> up over 2010 by 3.55%; this is the first up quarter since the fourth quarter of last year<\/b>, and the first up third quarter since 2009. We’re still looking at a month with comics and trade orders of more than $39 million overall, bringing the year to date to nearly $300 million<\/p>\n

The aggregate sales figures:<\/p>\n