I guess that having no X-Men movies in the next years will affect the sales

[Snoop Dogg]

We need thousands of child-brains in jars to produce the next generation of cyborgs programmed to buy X-Men comics.

[Triniking1234]

I' not sure how things work in the United States of Yankees but in the old days book stores here stocked up on comics when movies were coming out but that trend has died.

I must be having memory issues... Cause I don't remember asking about the box office?

The guy just needs an optometrist. Please understand.

[Snoop Dogg]

Funny joke. It's common knowledge that nothing exists outside of Burger Land, and entities like Lord Claremont are centurions of the void created by American dreams.

[phoenixzero23]

I agree that a good animated series would probably help X-Men comics more than movies. The 90's cartoon probably earned more new X-Men fans than all the movies combined.

I wonder if the movies ever made anyone fan of the X-men. Most people i know say they knew the X-men for TAS or Evolution. I have never met anybody who did for the movies.

[ButterRum]

Is there any evidence to suggest there's a positive correlation between movies and comic book sales? Comic book sales were better in the 80s and 90s and early 200s, and yet sales have been the worst ever the past decade even though we're in the golden age of superhero movies. Just in general the print industry is dying, and I'm not sure the absence of X-Men movies will affect sales.

[Snoop Dogg]

Is there any evidence to suggest there's a positive correlation between movies and comic book sales? Comic book sales were better in the 80s and 90s and early 200s, and yet sales have been the worst ever the past decade even though we're in the golden age of superhero movies. Just in general the print industry is dying, and I'm not sure the absence of X-Men movies will affect sales.

https://www.comichron.com/vitalstatistics/alltime.html

The growth of the direct market this decade compared to the 2000's plus other markets forming and growing like bookstores, online retailers, libraries, and digital books = The market continues to grow and that is in part owed to the dominance of the properties in other media and the direct link between movies and the books they adapt. Which is much better than having a 90's market that crashes when people realize they can't use books as investments and where distribution companies are being swallowed up by a black hole.

[jwatson]

I guess so.

Having no great X-Men movies in the theatres like we used to have in the past 19 years, well, that will affect the sales of the comic book titles, especially the unnecessary and redundant "collateral" X-Teams.

There has never been a great X-men movie so i'm not too worried about it.

[autbey]

Is there any evidence to suggest there's a positive correlation between movies and comic book sales? Comic book sales were better in the 80s and 90s and early 200s, and yet sales have been the worst ever the past decade even though we're in the golden age of superhero movies. Just in general the print industry is dying, and I'm not sure the absence of X-Men movies will affect sales.

The people who bought the books in the 80s and 90s are the same ones buying them today, that pool has shrunk and continues to shrink.

[skyvolt2000]

I guess so.

Having no great X-Men movies in the theatres like we used to have in the past 19 years, well, that will affect the sales of the comic book titles, especially the unnecessary and redundant "collateral" X-Teams.

Movies don't hurt comic book sales. They really have no effect whatsoever.

Movies do affect book sales. They effect collection sales. There is a reason why Infinity Gauntlet has been the highest-selling thing for years and Spider-Verse has a second wind. But we don't have those numbers anyway.

Well you sort of do if you look at Amazon trade numbers.

The last X-Men movie did see an increase in X-Men trade sales. Before than aside from Deadpool-the only X-Men book I saw in the top 100 was some X-Men run from 2010. Of course you had Jean Gray & Iceman & X-23 do well.
Now it can go two ways-an increase or nothing.
Black Panther you saw all his trades skyrocket in sales. For the most part they float around in the top 500 of all trades. Like GOTG, Carol Danvers & Thor-he has a trade that stays in the top 100.
Carol Danvers has ALWAYS had a trade in the top 100. So that movie did not help her non-movie trades that much.
Now Thanos-that movie helped him as IG and his solo book have stayed top sellers on Amazon.
Miles Morales floats in and out of the top 100 but he stays top 100 for Teens.

What the effect of characters being present in other media means is how likely a readers is predisposed to checking out a title when they eventually decide to take the plunge.

One issue-what if the person in that other media is NOT active or decently used in comics?

Why is Black Panther & Shuri the only place to find a decent Storm?
It took HOW MANY years for Aqualad of Young Justice to show up in a book?
We won't talk of cartoon/live action Cyborg versus comic book Cyborg.

Or you realize the X-Men have been HOSTILE to people who look like you or a certain Wakandan King.
There is a reason folks call out the diversity of X-Men films & comics.

Is there any evidence to suggest there's a positive correlation between movies and comic book sales?

The issue you have is that movie can nor help a comic book if you have stores that are SELECTIVE in stocking them.

That comic book store does. I saw store REFUSE to stock Shuri & Killmonger for racist reasons. Others were OFFENDED that they got books in the first place. It was not limited to Black Panther-they had that SAME attitude to Dr Strange, GOTG and pretty much every Marvel book that used someone from a film that was not named Odin, Steve, Peter, Eddie or Tony.

Amazon & Barnes & Nobles has ZERO choice is stocking or selling those books. That is why you see them do so well as trades. The comic book store is OUT of the conversation because those places take care of the demand.

[WebLurker]

I'm really curious if you're someone who grew up on the X-Men films were they big factor of bringing you into comics or was it more stuff like X-Men Evolution?

The movies, by a technicality; I got into the X-23 comics from seeing Logan, but that's it. I've never have been interested in the mainline X-Men comics, despite liking both the movies and X-Men: Evolution. So, any other X-Men stuff I've gotten is because it connected with the X-23 stuff in some way (like New Mutants).

So, long story short, the movies didn't, with only one exception. The movies just sold me on more movies. (Granted, most of the comics I read are because of the film adaptions, but very few of them get me reading in the first place,)

I wonder if the movies ever made anyone fan of the X-men. Most people i know say they knew the X-men for TAS or Evolution. I have never met anybody who did for the movies.

Well, I could say that; my first exposure to the franchise was seeing that first movie on DVD and I wound up getting into Evolution because of that.

[ClanAskani]

Technically, there still is one Fox X-Men movies left - New Mutants. There's no indication that the movie won't be released in theaters (that's only internet speculation) but even if it was dumped onto Hulu or Disney's new streaming service, it still would at least keep attention on the X-Men and mutants for a bit longer.

Disney's streaming service likely will have some of the X-Men cartoons so that will allow new viewers to find them and especially kids to be able to watch them.

So it's not necessarily increasing sales that's the goal, but making sure younger audiences know who the X-Men are and understand basic concepts like what is a mutant and the basic premise. So when the X-Men movie franchise is relaunched, the audience knows what the X-Men are. It's not that Marvel can't launch movie franchises where the majority of the audience has no idea about the property (GOTG), but it's easier when there's some built-in audience awareness and knowledge.

Even if New Mutants flops at the box office or doesn't even get a theatrical release, it's something that will appeal to teenagers and maybe some of them will be interested enough in the characters to pick up some comics. It won't boost readership much, but it may actually reach a market more apt to buy comics than the general audience who just watch action blockbusters.

[Snoop Dogg]

We can increase X-Men comic sales. I mean you, looking at the screen right now, and myself. Just start making generous donations to my bank account, and my business start-up will take off. No, true believer, not a comic book store. An X-Men-themed adult entertainment club. But here's the catch! Instead of paying our workers decent wages, I'll buy X-Books from Diamond. And instead of giving tips, customers buy some Wolverine stuff or whatever teams we're vomiting out. Everyone wins! Food and bar included.

[Wolverine12]

I don’t know how much affect movies have on book sales other than personal experience. X2 got me to go buy some tpbs and I grabbed what was on the shelf at the time which happened to be Ultimate X-Men. 17 years later I’m a Wednesday warrior with probably a few thousand floppies.

[ButterRum]

https://www.comichron.com/vitalstatistics/alltime.html

The growth of the direct market this decade compared to the 2000's plus other markets forming and growing like bookstores, online retailers, libraries, and digital books = The market continues to grow and that is in part owed to the dominance of the properties in other media and the direct link between movies and the books they adapt. Which is much better than having a 90's market that crashes when people realize they can't use books as investments and where distribution companies are being swallowed up by a black hole.

Those graphs showing an upward trend go by dollar revenue and not number of books sold. They have to increase the price to make more revenue.

Just look at X-Men #1 from the 90s... millions of issues sold. That's practically unheard of nowadays.

You can see in the early 90s, there were more books being sold it appears:



But wow, they peaked in 2016 with $50 million? Comics (and magazines) are such a tiny industry compared to other sectors.

[Triniking1234]

The people who bought the books in the 80s and 90s are the same ones buying them today, that pool has shrunk and continues to shrink.

Especially when reading isn't encouraged as a past time anymore.