Spider-Man Sales For June 2017

[MetalWoman]

Yeah...it looks like to me that after the huge fall from issue # 26 {62,515} to # 27 {51,404}...and with the numbers from # 28 {50,925} and # 29 {59,464} that the major boosts are not coming from new or disgruntled readers but from the Speculator market and variant covers...that worries me as it seems to be repeating what caused the crash in the 90's. History appears to be repeating itself and that greatly concerns me at present...along with Amazing's sinking numbers which I predict will grow worse if something major isn't done soon to right the ship. I also predict that Spectacular's numbers to fall significantly with the next issue and the issues after that...a lot of people are really sore that this book did not deliver as promised and has turned into a Marvel Team-Up book.I don't think throughout the entire history of Amazing if numbers have ever been this low...really troubling IMHO.

You cannot judge the success of a comic book anymore by floppy sales, because believe or not, they actually make up less than half of all comic format sales. http://comichron.com/yearlycomicssal...ustrywide.html

Seems trades actually make a significant amount more than floppies in recent years. To the tune of $200 million more than floppies, and growing every year. Also shockingly digital sales has seemed to have leveled off in recent years.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

Marvel Studios is a different division from Marvel Publishing. I think the only risk that Marvel Publishing runs is some reshuffling. I don't actually see Disney licensing out Marvel comics. Worst case, we'd see more comic shops closing but Marvel Publishing itself will be fine.

All the money ultimately goes to the same place. They'll do what they need to do to keep the Publishing division afloat.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

You cannot judge the success of a comic book anymore by floppy sales, because believe or not, they actually make up less than half of all comic format sales. http://comichron.com/yearlycomicssal...ustrywide.html

Seems trades actually make a significant amount more than floppies in recent years. To the tune of $200 million more than floppies, and growing every year. Also shockingly digital sales has seemed to have leveled off in recent years.

That's pretty much offset by the inflated numbers variants have on physical sales. Take away those variant covers and physical sales are much lower.

[Pav]

90's Ben Reilly is quite a bit different from 2017 Peter Parker.

90s Ben would be an anachronism in 2017, just like teenage me would be.

Let Ben find his place in the new millennium!
Read Scarlet Spider!

-Pav, who would hate to be a teen again...

[MetalWoman]

That's pretty much offset by the inflated numbers variants have on physical sales. Take away those variant covers and physical sales are much lower.

How would variants have any effect on trade sales?

[rui no onna]

You cannot judge the success of a comic book anymore by floppy sales, because believe or not, they actually make up less than half of all comic format sales. http://comichron.com/yearlycomicssal...ustrywide.html

Seems trades actually make a significant amount more than floppies in recent years. To the tune of $200 million more than floppies, and growing every year. Also shockingly digital sales has seemed to have leveled off in recent years.

One thing to note, the trade sales aren't just trades of titles recently released. That includes all the reprints of old material such as Marvel Masterworks and omnibuses. Also, a good chunk of that $200 million is comprised of Raina Telgemeier, Robert Kirkman and manga.

Interestingly enough, Marvel actually does have variants for their collected editions (e.g. MMW). America Vol. 1 TPB is also getting a variant.

All the money ultimately goes to the same place. They'll do what they need to do to keep the Publishing division afloat.

I highly doubt Disney is nice like that. That's not how corporate works. More than likely, underperforming departments are in danger of facing cuts.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

How would variants have any effect on trade sales?

It doesn't.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

One thing to note, the trade sales aren't just trades of titles recently released. That includes all the reprints of old material such as Marvel Masterworks and omnibuses. Also, a good chunk of that $200 million is comprised of Raina Telgemeier, Robert Kirkman and manga.

Interestingly enough, Marvel actually does have variants for their collected editions (e.g. MMW). America Vol. 1 TPB is also getting a variant.



I highly doubt Disney is nice like that. That's not how corporate works. More than likely, underperforming departments are in danger of facing cuts.

Cuts? Yes. But they won't let the entire division fold. It's the source material for the films, if nothing else.

[WebLurker]

Marvel Studios is a different division from Marvel Publishing. I think the only risk that Marvel Publishing runs is some reshuffling. I don't actually see Disney licensing out Marvel comics. Worst case, we'd see more comic shops closing but Marvel Publishing itself will be fine.

Disney is licensing out a Star Wars anthology comic series to IDW.

[rui no onna]

Disney is licensing out a Star Wars anthology comic series to IDW.

Yeah, kid-friendly Star Wars, and they've got the Disney Princess stuff on Joe Books. I think IDW also does the Donald Duck comics, etc.

The thing is Marvel Publishing is profitable (granted variants, relaunches and events are a major part of their sales and marketing strategy). Pretty sure the Kindle Unlimited deal is paying off and given how often I get HTTP 500 errors on Marvel's website particularly on Wednesdays, I'm guessing they're getting a lot of traffic via Marvel Unlimited, too. Iirc, merchandise also falls under Marvel Publishing's purview.

There's a lot of relatively minor adjustments they can do in the direct market. I just don't think Marvel is interested in doing them. They've pretty much decided they'd rather have fewer single issue customers paying higher prices than more customers paying less. Entirely their prerogative of course.

[DieHard200904]

You cannot judge the success of a comic book anymore by floppy sales, because believe or not, they actually make up less than half of all comic format sales. http://comichron.com/yearlycomicssal...ustrywide.html

Seems trades actually make a significant amount more than floppies in recent years. To the tune of $200 million more than floppies, and growing every year. Also shockingly digital sales has seemed to have leveled off in recent years.

Kind of makes sense. I mean why not buy the whole set in a booklet?

[Timmyb52]

This book isn't "failing." It may not be a blockbuster but it seems to be holding steady.

I think it's one of the more interesting books out there right now. Like Pav, I like it when characters don't just stay the same. Having a straightfowardly heroic Ben would not be terribly interesting or useful in a MU where we already have Peter and Miles. I prefer this damaged Ben who isn't going to make conventional choices or just go after bad guys like every other hero.

As long as this book can maintain a readership above 20.000 I don't see Marvel cancelling it any time soon. Plus, I believe that Marvel wants this book to do well in the long run and want to keep it as the central book for Ben and Kaine.

[Timmyb52]

Fortunately, the bubble isn't nearly as big as it was in the 90's, so the crash won't be nearly as hard.

As long as Marvel is making big money from their movies, they'll be okay. But if those start to falter, it will get very dicey for them as a company. Comic books are no longer Marvel's bread and butter.

Marvel Studios and Marvel Publishing are separate entities within Disney right? I worry that if Marvel Publishing suffers another crash how that would affect Disney's view of it and if they would allow that division to continue afterwards in publishing comics. To be honest...sooner or later the public will get tired of superhero movies just as occurred to Westerns IMO. I could be wrong about that though...but I feel that they will get burned out on them due to oversaturation of the genre.

[Timmyb52]

Marvel Studios is a different division from Marvel Publishing. I think the only risk that Marvel Publishing runs is some reshuffling. I don't actually see Disney licensing out Marvel comics. Worst case, we'd see more comic shops closing but Marvel Publishing itself will be fine.

I replied to Scarlet that I thought them being two different divisions was the case...thanks for clearing that up. I still have my worries though how Disney would react towards Marvel Publishing as a whole...whether or not they would think it profitiable to bail them out after making the same mistakes as they did during the 90's.I agree...the comic shops would suffer a mighty blow that would make it very difficult for them to come back from IMO while at the same time leaving a very negative image upon Marvel as a whole that would require a lot of work on their part to regain faith back from their fans.

[Timmyb52]

You cannot judge the success of a comic book anymore by floppy sales, because believe or not, they actually make up less than half of all comic format sales. http://comichron.com/yearlycomicssal...ustrywide.html

Seems trades actually make a significant amount more than floppies in recent years. To the tune of $200 million more than floppies, and growing every year. Also shockingly digital sales has seemed to have leveled off in recent years.

I will have to disagree with you here that one cannot judge the health of a comic book by floppy sales due to the fact that TPB's come out much later and are built upon the floppies themselves after their release. In order to judge the success or failure of a current comic we can only do that through looking at the floppy sales to retailers and digital sales.Digital sales are not shared in their entirety at all so all we have is the floppy sales numbers released by Diamond to go by to give us the best view of the floppy market and how individual titles are affected. The sales of the floppies will also dictate whether or not they will be formatted into TPB form based on its popularity and profitability.