February sales 2019

[Snoop Dogg]

They had at least enough common sense to double ship Major X so it'll be done in 3 months. Age of X-Men is not over until July 17th. If it keeps up this pace in sales, I'm not sure I want to see the numbers for the #5 issues.

The best we can hope for is that attrition isn't too bad because the books are good. But the biggest problem here, and the gap between Marvelous numbers and the rest kinda show this, is copying the AOA event format which only worked because X-Books were top dog. Old event formats aren't good. There is a reason all modern events, like the one Marvel is publishing next month, clearly distinguish the main story content from the extra material and tie-ins. This "every creative team gets the same amount of issues and equal importance" encourages all or nothing buying, on top of the event being way too long and big. And if people do compromise and just go for a book, surprise surprise, they're only going to do that for the book with X-Men in it. And that's assuming shops didn't overestimate people's willingness to do that for Marvelous. I hope the books turn out great and it's a cool event, but it's really just asking for the "wait for it to hit Unlimited for free" approach.

[Purplevit]

Everyone know that AOX just goving more time for White and Co to prepare for real big X relaunch. I am sure that all new books for July and August will have fine sales.

[comeatmebro]

they better have some top tier talent on them instead of everyone working on this event

[spirit2011]

Everyone know that AOX just goving more time for White and Co to prepare for real big X relaunch. I am sure that all new books for July and August will have fine sales.

Still have a event for 6 months that for many readers look like a age of apocalypse 2.0 wasn't the best idea.
The event is pretty good, but never gained steam

[The Kid]

Honestly, i like AoX but everyone saw this coming from a mile away. The only reason AoA worked in the 90s is because the medium in general was much, much healthier and the X-Men were by far the most successful franchise. They just don't have the clout anymore to pull this off today

[phoenixzero23]

Still have a event for 6 months that for many readers look like a age of apocalypse 2.0 wasn't the best idea.
The event is pretty good, but never gained steam

It is difficult to get invested with AU stuff even if it is well written.

[Heroine Addict]

We knew sales were going to be low because there was next to no marketing.

I'm not really phased since we'll get the planned story regardless. I hope it doesn't effect the opportunities these creative teams get. They've done stellar work.

Don't let 'em get ya goin', AoXM's order numbers are fine. Going by Alpha's the previous month, and using that as a barometer, they're well within legitimately managed eXpectations. I was figurin' 30-40k for each myself, so am not surprised or disappointed, consequently. All together, that puts them anywhere between a 120-160k sum total.

[Heroine Addict]

The digital sales were low, too, so stores made the right choice. It's possible that they over-ordered even at those levels. In Comixology's WEEKLY charts, the first issues ranked like 12th-22nd for new issues. Extrapolate that to monthly and it's not a pretty picture.

Pretty sure I've seen Uncanny only get to the 6th position. Right where Winter's End is now, BTW, if that tells you anything. In the meantime, Marvelous #2's currently at 9, with X-tracts sittin' at 20. They all perform better at Marvel.com natch, and have been consistently in the Top 5 there, if I'm not mistaken.

[Kurolegacy]

It is difficult to get invested with AU stuff even if it is well written.

It’s even more difficult to get invested in an AU event when it’s done in such a confusing and disjointed style that’s basically all or nothing.

[Heroine Addict]

If anything, let’s hope that this comes as a lesson of what not to do as far as combining your relaunch with an AU event. Sure Uncanny is doing well in spite of it, but the rest of the line is definitely suffering as a result of Age of X-Man.

Nothing but assumptions from a skewed view. Ya honestly can't say, as we don't know what their actual hopes were internally, or what their (digital) data really shows.

[Heroine Addict]

They had at least enough common sense to double ship Major X so it'll be done in 3 months. Age of X-Men is not over until July 17th. If it keeps up this pace in sales, I'm not sure I want to see the numbers for the #5 issues.

They'll likely follow the same trajectory that all recent X-books have, so probably 'round 20-30k.

... But the biggest problem here, and the gap between Marvelous numbers and the rest kinda show this, is copying the AOA event format which only worked because X-Books were top dog. ...

The AoA books replaced already eXisting titles, which is not the case with AoXM, where they stand on their own as originals.

[Heroine Addict]

Honestly, i like AoX but everyone saw this coming from a mile away. The only reason AoA worked in the 90s is because the medium in general was much, much healthier and the X-Men were by far the most successful franchise. They just don't have the clout anymore to pull this off today

Ya said a mouthful there: As Comics' Direct Market Struggles ... - Forbes

Jan 18, 2019 - 2018 was a dire year for the network of independently-owned comic book stores that form the backbone of the distribution channel for periodical comics in the United States. Diamond Comic Distributors, the singular distributor for the comic store market, after initially estimating a modest growth in sales for the previous year, issued a correction that overall comic and graphic novel sales fell by about 1% in dollars and nearly 6% by volume compared to 2017, and graphic novel sales through comic stores - a growth segment for the trade book market - fell 8.2% (dollars)/9.7% units.

That means that local comic shops are clinging to the shrinking market of print periodicals - that is, individual issues of comic books published monthly-ish by companies like DC Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment and Image - while losing their share of the booming market for trade collections and graphic novels to other outlets like book stores and Amazon.

Lots of factors account for the decline, including the lack of many true blockbuster hits last year; the self-defeating tactics of large publishers to extract maximum revenue out of a small and unrepresentative group of hardcore collectors; falling costs of digital back issues via subscription services and sales, making it less necessary for readers to follow every series in real time; and general headwinds facing many small, urban-based businesses, such as rising rents and labor costs, which put a pinch on their ability to order extra copies. In the comic book direct market, orders from the distributor are usually non-returnable, which puts huge pressure on retailers to not over-order titles that might not be salable (prices for recent back issues of most comics are near zero), but not under-order on titles that might end up being sleeper hits. Even small miscalculations can be the difference between a good month and catastrophe.

According to the industry site ICv2 (disclosure: I am a contributor), "Comic stores are getting hammered from two directions. First, sales of the graphic novel categories that comic stores are best at are shrinking across channels. Neither Marvel nor DC have been putting out comics that are capturing the public imagination for the past couple of years. Collecting them into graphic novels isn’t making the content any more appealing. As a result, sales of superhero graphic novels are plummeting."

Milton Griepp, ICv2 publisher and a longtime industry analyst, further adds that comic stores, which draw most of their customers from adult superhero fans, are missing out on the biggest trend in comics over the last few years: graphic novels for kids, teens and young readers. ...

[Heroine Addict]

It is difficult to get invested with AU stuff even if it is well written.

For some, maybe.

[wano]

The original age of Apocalypse sold because speculation and because the whole line was replaced with it, now we've got cyclops and Wolvie kicking ass and taking names so why bother with an AU?

[comeatmebro]

the original Age of Apocalypse sold because its the best event Big 2 comics ever produced