{"id":5248,"date":"2011-06-14T04:22:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T21:43:09","slug":"may-2011-comics-sales-estimates-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/may-2011-comics-sales-estimates-online\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2011 comics sales estimates online"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: right;\">\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/201105FearItself2-2.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">The full data for the month of May is out <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diamondcomics.com\/\"><b>Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b><\/a><\/b>, and as mentioned in the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.comichron.com\/2011\/06\/waiting-game-evident-in-may-2011-comics.html\"><b>preliminary report<\/b><\/a> here last week, the month softer year-over-year in all categories. The sales estimates for May 2011 can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2011\/2011-05.html\"><b>here<\/b><\/a>.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">Again, unit sales were off by the greatest amount year-over-year, which should not be too surprising: unit sales were at about the same levels as in February, while <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2011\/2011-05.html\">May 2010<\/a><\/b> saw the release of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2010.html\"><b>2010&#8217;s best-selling issue<\/b><\/a>, <b><i>Avengers<\/i> #1, <\/b>among other heavy hitters. This year, <b>Marvel<\/b>&#8216;s <b><i>Fear Itself<\/i> #2<\/b> took the top slot, followed by <b>DC<\/b>&#8216;s <b><i>Flashpoint<\/i> #1<\/b>. Marvel, which has many biweekly releases slated for summer, had barely begun to double up releases in May. We&#8217;d expect to see the real effect of this move, if any, beginning in June. (While June will also be our first month for any market reaction to DC&#8217;s September restart, caution is again advised in interpreting that data when it releases, as most of the June ordering decisions were made back in April.)<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/vitalstatistics\/300thplace.html\"><b>300th place title<\/b><\/a>, a key indicator of sales levels, was <i><b>Robert E. Howard&#8217;s Savage Sword<\/b><\/i> <b>#2<\/b> at 2,913 copies, the second-highest total for that placement for the year and almost the same as the 300th place title sold last May. So the market has the same depth as this time last year \u2014 it&#8217;s the volumes higher on the list that have been shaved off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><a style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Crossed-3D-1-David-Lapham\/dp\/1592911080?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=farawaypcom-20&amp;link_code=bil&amp;camp=213689&amp;creative=392969\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;WS=1&amp;Format=_SL160_&amp;ASIN=1592911080&amp;tag=farawaypcom-20\" alt=\"Crossed 3D Volume 1\" \/><\/a>As mentioned here before, <b>Avatar<\/b> had the top-selling graphic novel, the 3-D <i><b>Crossed 3D Vol. 1<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=farawaypcom-20&amp;l=bil&amp;camp=213689&amp;creative=392969&amp;o=1&amp;a=1592911080\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/><\/b><\/i>. It&#8217;s a reminder that while digital may have come a long way, there are still plenty of tricks in the print comics bag (and 3-D comic books go back more than 50 years).<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">The average price of comic books in the Top 300 was $3.54; the average comic book ordered (or weighted price) was $3.47. $2.99 was both the median and most common price for comics in the Top 100.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">The combined comics and trades market lost a point in dollar sales versus 2010, and is now off 7.5%. The aggregate figures appear below:<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: red;\"><b>TOP 300 COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b><\/div>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2011\/2011-05.html\">May 2011<\/a>: <\/b>5.14 million copies<br \/>\nVersus <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2010\/2010-05.html\"><b>1 year ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -16%<br \/>\nVersus <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2006\/2006-05.html\"><b>5 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: -32%<br \/>\nVersus <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2001\/2001-05.html\"><b>10 years ago this month<\/b><\/a>: +6%<br \/>\nYEAR TO DATE: 25.99 million copies, -10% vs. 2010, -20% vs. 2006, +5% vs. 2001<\/p>\n<p><b>ALL COMICS UNIT SALES<\/b><br \/>\nMay 2011 versus one year ago this month: <b>-15.46%<\/b><br \/>\n<b>YEAR TO DATE: -8.8%<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<div style=\"color: red;\"><b>TOP 300 COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b><\/div>\n<p>May 2011: $17.83 million<br \/>\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -17%<br \/>\nVersus 5 years ago this month: -24%<br \/>\nVersus 10 years ago this month: +37%<br \/>\nYEAR TO DATE: $90.63 million, -10% vs. 2010, -9% vs. 2006, +34% vs. 2001<\/p>\n<p><b>ALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES<\/b><br \/>\nMay 2011 versus one year ago this month: <b>-14.39%<\/b><br \/>\n<b>YEAR TO DATE: -8.5%<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<div style=\"color: red;\"><b>TOP 300 TRADE PAPERBACK DOLLAR SALES<\/b><\/div>\n<p>May 2011: $5.63 million<br \/>\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -6%<br \/>\nVersus 5 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: -6%<br \/>\nVersus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: -29%<br \/>\nYEAR TO DATE: $25.87 million, -8% vs. 2010<\/p>\n<p><b>ALL TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b><br \/>\nMay 2011 versus one year ago this month: <b>-4.42%<\/b><br \/>\n<b>YEAR TO DATE: -5.41%<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<div style=\"color: red;\"><b>TOP 300 COMICS + TOP 300 TRADE PAPERBACK DOLLAR SALES<\/b><\/div>\n<p>May 2011: $23.46 million<br \/>\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -15%<br \/>\nVersus 5 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: -22%<br \/>\nVersus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +30%<br \/>\nYEAR TO DATE: $116.49 million, -9% vs. 2010<\/p>\n<p><b>ALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK\u00a0 SALES<\/b><br \/>\nMay 2011 versus one year ago this month: <b>-11.21%<\/b><br \/>\n<b>YEAR TO DATE: -7.51%<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<div style=\"color: red;\"><b>OVERALL DIAMOND SALES (including all comics, trades, and magazines)<\/b><\/div>\n<p>May 2011: approximately $31.2 million (subject to revision)<br \/>\nVersus 1 year ago this month: -11%<br \/>\nVersus 5 years ago this month: -17%<br \/>\nYEAR TO DATE: $152.95 million, -7% vs. 2010<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The full data for the month of May is out Diamond Comic Distributors, and as mentioned in the preliminary report here last week, the month softer year-over-year in all categories. The sales estimates for May 2011 can be found here. Again, unit sales were off by the greatest amount year-over-year, which should not be too &#8230; <a title=\"May 2011 comics sales estimates online\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/may-2011-comics-sales-estimates-online\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about May 2011 comics sales estimates online\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[85,17],"class_list":["post-5248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2011-sales","tag-diamond-monthly-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248","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=5248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6548,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248\/revisions\/6548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}