Quote Originally Posted by Oberon View Post
I wonder how many of the MCU movies and projects increased readership.
Far as I can tell the larger media stuff doesn't have much of an impact on comic sales. Obviously I don't have the whole picture or the behind-the-scenes data the company does but looking at what we *can* see, it seems like readership size isn't impacted....though I'm not sure if the larger media efforts shift things within the established readership. Does Iron Man sell better now than in 2007 because of the movies, or because Marvel has put better creators on the title and given Tony a bigger role in a lot of major Events? Know what I mean?

When a movie or show hits, the floppies might see a short, small spike in sales. If a comic gets a new #1 and is clearly influenced by the film that increase might be a bit bigger, but still doesn't amount to a whole lot.

Trades see a slightly larger bump for a slightly longer time, and if a lot of older reprints are dropped on the trade shelf that helps, but it's still nothing that really makes a big splash as far as sale increases go.

There are a few exceptions; the GotG and Ant-Man are better able to hold down comics now because of the films, but those comics still struggle to stay above cancellation range and can't usually sustain long runs. So film synergy largely seems to be more trouble than its worth. A little icing on the cake, which is nice, but nothing more.

All that said, Marvel probably should have reprinted some of Wanda and Vision's older material for trade (that must be very cheap and easy to do, I'm guessing), especially the stuff that had a direct influence on the show. If my reading of the sales data is correct Marvel didn't lose out on a lot of money, at least in the short term, but they did let an opportunity pass to throw a little extra into their revenue stream. And I'd guess that the tie-in material; trades, merch, etc., increase the odds of converting a casual MCU fan into a comics newbie, so that's a small loss of potential revenue down the road. If nothing else, the lack of tie-ins meant that established comic fans can't spend more money on the trades (I never read King's Vision back in the day, and can't buy the trade now if I wanted to, so that's $20 less in Marvel's pocket).

Doesn't seem to be a "mistake" so much as a small opportunity the company passed on, but it's still easy money the company let slip through their fingers.