What are X-books sales like right now?

[Dthirds3]

That's not how businesses are run, but you keep telling yourself that.

No seriously they don't matter. It dosent include digital, tpb, reorders, or the accualy amount readers buy just what the storys ordered. In addition, half the time the varent covers or ordered in a way that inflates sales numbers. The numbers are literal bullshit..

[cranger]

No seriously they don't matter. It dosent include digital, tpb, reorders, or the accualy amount readers buy just what the storys ordered. In addition, half the time the varent covers or ordered in a way that inflates sales numbers. The numbers are literal bullshit..

Right. I think we should be clear of the distinction between Marvel caring how much money they make in anything they do, and how much we as customers should care about any sales numbers someone magically comes up with.

[BobbysWorld]

Its also extremely relevant that Marvel Comics is just one branch of a giant multi-media conglomerate. Its profits are negligible compared to the value corporate higher-ups see in it being simply an IP farm, meant to seed, cultivate and test various ideas or directions that they can implement in merchandising, TV and film, which is where the 'real money' is made in corporate eyes.

They can afford to take a loss on literally any comic at any time, if they feel it serves a purpose, and barely even notice a dint in their overall bottom line. Like there are a lot of seemingly inexplicable choices both Marvel and DC have made with their comics in the last ten years, cancelling seemingly REALLY successful runs and letting books that barely break even go on seemingly forever.....because its not really about what the comic sales bring in for Warner Brothers and Disney.....its about what TV/film ideas they're trying out, setting up for, running consumer experiments with, etc. Even the top sellers in comics month to month are still only a drop in the bucket of overall profits for the larger company - that's not really the source of their value to Marvel and Disney at this point.

*Shrugs* Which sucks because it leads to some truly horrible creative decisions for the comics at times, like I know its often said that no more mutants was about pettiness over the film rights and/or because Quesada said making any new character a mutant was just making writers lazy.....but that was always bullshit because post M-Day the comics immediately pivoted to introducing scores of new characters with stuff like Avengers Initiative whose oh so creative origins were often just 'there was a generic never explained experiment somewhere probably' and then again with the push to Inhumans.....basically writers were encouraged to make new characters like Miss Marvel, Quake, Flint, Inferno, Reader, etc, that they then introduced in shows like Agents of SHIELD or their Secret Warriors cartoon....the no more mutants thing was ALWAYS about the fact that Fox didn't just own the X-Men film rights, they owned the entire concept of mutants and thus even NEW mutant characters created AFTER the initial Fox film deal still fell under the Fox umbrella rather than the MCU's. Hence why X-Men First Class was able to use characters like Darwin and Angel Salvatore even though both were created well after the film rights were sold. So it was never about not even wanting Fox to have more characters to use, it was simply about Marvel not seeing any potential profit to be made in new characters they (at the time) didn't think they'd ever be able to shift over into other media. (Like, just a slight shift in how that tends to be talked about on social media, but it is key - it wasn't "we don't want to give our media rivals more fodder" so much as "why would we make characters that only they can use and we can't").

So I mean, in as much as sales figures are no longer the accurate predictors for whether a title will sink or swim that they once were, I think its worth noting that this isn't JUST because its hard to put a finger on just what the true sales figures ARE anymore given things like the pandemic and digital vs print sales....but its also just as much because what the corporate overlords even WANT to result from putting out various comics has shifted so seismically its no longer as simple as just 'they want comics to sell and cancel the ones that don't.' There's just a ton more variables these days that we don't have a real barometer for, from a consumer perspective.

[RachelGrey]

December https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...12Diamond.html


November https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...11Diamond.html

October https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-10.html

As for digital salesAttachment 118421

This makes a good point, I know several people who never buy individual comics, they buy collected graphic novels of the stories. They don't care about the comic book speculation market, they just want to read the story arcs uninterrupted. Graphic Novels are a massive part of comic sales now.

[ericng]

This is the December 2021 sales.

New Mutants is on the low sales side with Excalibur as I predicted.

28 14 Inferno 3 $5.99 12/08/21 Marvel PRH 22,607

76 72 X-Men Trial of Magneto 5 $3.99 12/22/21 Marvel PRH 14,832

127 112 X-Force 26 $3.99 12/15/21 Marvel PRH 10,749

132 116 Marauders 26 $3.99 12/01/21 Marvel PRH 10,504

154 134 New Mutants 23 $3.99 12/01/21 Marvel PRH 8,892
155 135 Excalibur 26 $3.99 12/15/21 Marvel PRH 8,832

[Marvelfan1992]

Has X-Men been best selling X-title aside from events?

[Frobisher]

Its also extremely relevant that Marvel Comics is just one branch of a giant multi-media conglomerate. Its profits are negligible compared to the value corporate higher-ups see in it being simply an IP farm, meant to seed, cultivate and test various ideas or directions that they can implement in merchandising, TV and film, which is where the 'real money' is made in corporate eyes.

They can afford to take a loss on literally any comic at any time, if they feel it serves a purpose, and barely even notice a dint in their overall bottom line. Like there are a lot of seemingly inexplicable choices both Marvel and DC have made with their comics in the last ten years, cancelling seemingly REALLY successful runs and letting books that barely break even go on seemingly forever.....because its not really about what the comic sales bring in for Warner Brothers and Disney.....its about what TV/film ideas they're trying out, setting up for, running consumer experiments with, etc. Even the top sellers in comics month to month are still only a drop in the bucket of overall profits for the larger company - that's not really the source of their value to Marvel and Disney at this point.

*Shrugs* Which sucks because it leads to some truly horrible creative decisions for the comics at times, like I know its often said that no more mutants was about pettiness over the film rights and/or because Quesada said making any new character a mutant was just making writers lazy.....but that was always bullshit because post M-Day the comics immediately pivoted to introducing scores of new characters with stuff like Avengers Initiative whose oh so creative origins were often just 'there was a generic never explained experiment somewhere probably' and then again with the push to Inhumans.....basically writers were encouraged to make new characters like Miss Marvel, Quake, Flint, Inferno, Reader, etc, that they then introduced in shows like Agents of SHIELD or their Secret Warriors cartoon....the no more mutants thing was ALWAYS about the fact that Fox didn't just own the X-Men film rights, they owned the entire concept of mutants and thus even NEW mutant characters created AFTER the initial Fox film deal still fell under the Fox umbrella rather than the MCU's. Hence why X-Men First Class was able to use characters like Darwin and Angel Salvatore even though both were created well after the film rights were sold. So it was never about not even wanting Fox to have more characters to use, it was simply about Marvel not seeing any potential profit to be made in new characters they (at the time) didn't think they'd ever be able to shift over into other media. (Like, just a slight shift in how that tends to be talked about on social media, but it is key - it wasn't "we don't want to give our media rivals more fodder" so much as "why would we make characters that only they can use and we can't").

So I mean, in as much as sales figures are no longer the accurate predictors for whether a title will sink or swim that they once were, I think its worth noting that this isn't JUST because its hard to put a finger on just what the true sales figures ARE anymore given things like the pandemic and digital vs print sales....but its also just as much because what the corporate overlords even WANT to result from putting out various comics has shifted so seismically its no longer as simple as just 'they want comics to sell and cancel the ones that don't.' There's just a ton more variables these days that we don't have a real barometer for, from a consumer perspective.

All of this is true; and also I think that while trade paperbacks and digital have long been considered small-beans compared to the traditional floppies/collector market, the Big Two are absolutely actively pursuing ways to grow the market beyond its LCS roots. You can get a lot of money out of Whale-consumers, but where's the next generation coming from?

[PolarIceFire]

Don't get me wrong, I think ComicHub and Comixology are pretty useless for tracking sales numbers for several reasons including being small sets of data, I originally just meant that I like the idea of a set of numbers that is sales to customers from retailers.

I'm not familiar with ComicHub, but when it comes to Comixology's digital sales rankings, I think they're the least significant & most negligible of the statistical info available. (And from what I'm already understanding, initially anyway, Amazon's recent changes are *apparently* only going to compound that.) IVc2's (much likely LARGER) sample size specifics take precedent for me, and those are what I was referring to when I said Diamond's data & ComiChron's subsequent figures would sooner or later, bear out the same results.

But going back to floppy reorders by shops, from what I've gathered they appear impossible to quantify from the latter above, unlike IVc2's (barcodes through scanners) POS method *which*... doesn't even require you to do so. Therefore, the apples & oranges comparison *at the very least* holds true, IMO.

[Writerblog]

How much are digital sales compared to store sales? I feel like it was less, but that might have been pre-COVID.

Small percentage. Amazon is basically ending comixology. For digital comics is better use Marvel and DC apps if Amazon don't fix it.

[cranger]

But going back to floppy reorders by shops, from what I've gathered they appear impossible to quantify from the latter above, unlike IVc2's (barcodes through scanners) POS method *which*... doesn't even require you to do so. Therefore, the apples & oranges comparison *at the very least* holds true, IMO.

While your understanding of apples and oranges has no impact on what I have said, I can tell you that Diamond monthly numbers do lump in reorders, so books that released in the first week will very often include reorders if they shipped in the same month. For obvious reasons, books that release in the final week month will never have reorders lumped in with them. Any reorders that ship in a subsequent month will show up there. Make sense?

[PolarIceFire]

Has X-Men been best selling X-title aside from events?

Yes, which is good, as sales still are the determining factor for any given title's longevity. Both writers & editors readily express & I guess... *admit* this? Of note, monetary restrictions are regularly referenced, as well.

Citing some recent examples, from both sides of the (topical) fail/success spectrum, I give to you exhibit A:

Fallen Angels, X-Corp, AND... Immortal Hulk, all say hi.

[LordUltimus]

Part of it is title recognition. When there's an adjectiveless X-Men or an Uncanny X-Men, they tend to sell the best because that's seen as the "main" X-book.

[PolarIceFire]

Small percentage. Amazon is basically ending comixology. For digital comics is better use Marvel and DC apps if Amazon don't fix it.

As of right now, it stands as a not encouraging sign.

While your understanding of apples and oranges has no impact on what I have said, I can tell you that Diamond monthly numbers do lump in reorders, so books that released in the first week will very often include reorders if they shipped in the same month. For obvious reasons, books that release in the final week month will never have reorders lumped in with them. Any reorders that ship in a subsequent month will show up there. Make sense?

Comprehending was never mentioned, quantifying was, they are not the same.

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...2/2022-03.html

Several weeks ago, retailers began placing advance reorders for items whose initial order deadlines had passed, but which had not yet released at the time the reorders were placed. These reorders, placed further out than regular reorders, tend to be more speculative in nature, as there is less certainty that stock will still be available. But they do give us the farthest-into-the-future look at potential sales. To see potential sales for this month, you generally want to look at the advance reorders placed from the month before.

Note that the listings mix hardcovers, softcovers, and comics together, and that they also rank items by dollars rather than units. Note, too, that advance reorder charts are ranked by retail dollars, so retailers' discounts have not yet been applied. There is no guarantee that these advance reorders will be filled. It's also likely that a lot of books in these lists won't synch up exactly with this month; reorders are placed all the time and reported weekly, while comics sales are reported monthly.

Unlike as I said, the *hard numbers* collected in IVc2's sales reports, there's too many *uncertainties* with how, when, and/or even IF reorder totals are folded in... capisce?

[cranger]

As of right now, it stands as a not encouraging sign.



Comprehending was never mentioned, quantifying was, they are not the same.

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...2/2022-03.html


Unlike as I said, the *hard numbers* collected in IVc2's sales reports, there's too many *uncertainties* with how, when, and/or even IF reorder totals are folded in... capisce?

I feel like you think there is some sort of dispute. There is not. Also, I am not talking about advance reorders. Carry on.

[PolarIceFire]

Part of it is title recognition. When there's an adjectiveless X-Men or an Uncanny X-Men, they tend to sell the best because that's seen as the "main" X-book.

EXACT-tact-ly!!!

EXHIBIT B: Both S.W.O.R.D. & Excalibur becoming X-Men Red & Knights of X, respectively... SAY HI!!