On sales figures again...
Jan. 29th, 2009 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophile
Full comic sales figures are in for December and they initially make for curious reading.
Take, for example, the sales figures for Uncanny X-men. Issue 504 sold 77k, as low as I could find any records for in sales charts since 1993. But with issue 505 there's a sudden jump back up to 82k. Ahah! you exclaim. That must be because Greg Land, the porntastic tracer is off the book. But then, looking at it, no, it can't be that, because he was also off the book by issue 504, which was when the Dodsons took over.
A little more investigation and I discover that issue 505 had a villains variant cover. As far as I can tall, 504 only came with one. So I guess that explains that sudden 6% increase in sales. I'm surprised that variant covers make that much difference, but apparently they do. It'll be interesting to see where the book goes next of 506 has no variant.
The same is true of X-Force, which suddenly added another 1500 sales to its total, coming in at almost 59k. Not quite so big a percentage increase, (2.73%), but any increase looks impressive. It seems people still jump for the variant covers trick.
The same's not true of X-men Legacy. No villain variant and another 5% drop in sales. Ouch. Now languishing around the 60k mark it only just beat out X-force and X-men: Ghost Boxes 2, a one-shot anthology title with a $4 cover price and 14 pages of story. From core X-men title and solid sales winner to languishing down at 28 in the charts. That has to hurt. It's solicited for a few more issues, but surely they're not going to let this continue indefinitely.
Interestingly, just above that title is Amazing Spider-man, with sales of 63k. Both of the other issues in the month sold 69k, so I'm not sure why this one issue by Roger Stern dropped 6k, but it puts it below the level that Spider-man had to average post-One More Day to beat out how the pre-retconned marriage titles were doing. But MJ lovers don't get too excited. It's only that one issue and across the month and year, the thrice-monthly Amazing is still slightly ahead of where the three Spider-man titles were, by average.
Back on the X-titles, X-Infernus debuts at 48.5k. Not at all bad for a miniseries and might mean positive things for the as-yet-unconfirmed original New Mutants comic spinning off the back of it. I'm pleased to see it doing decently as I enjoyed the book so far.
Incredible Hercules also benefits from the villain variant cover, picking up another 1000 sales and coming in with sales of 38k. I wish it was better but fingers crossed for it being able to hold steady at that level.
X-Men Kingbreaker is another miniseries to debut, bringing in decent sales of 36.5k. Seeing as it seems to be a filler before the next galactic event story, Marvel should be pleased with that, I assume.
X-Factor's next and there's another 3.7% drop and sales of 34.5k. As I've said earlier this week, I no longer care. I'll be another lost sale for this title, but I'm afraid I'm not comfortable with certain things being used as drama points and "the shock ending you never saw coming!" Peter David's said he's trying to turn the book around but that's not the way to do it, in my opinion. Anyway...
Young X-men holds steady with almost identical sales to November. However, that's not as good as it sounds because the issue also had a variant cover. Without that, it undoubtedly would have dropped further. It's dead in the water, anyway, and canceled from issue 12, but with sales at 30k, that's a big flop on the relaunch front.
Runaways has a more significant slide. 1500 less copies shifted, which at the level it's at is a 6% drop between issues. Down to 22k now. The Moore relaunch, has, apparently, not really been a success. I wonder if they're still picking up the very strong digest and trade sales they were back when BKV was at this level. Otherwise, worrying.
Even more worrying - a slide to 21k for Captain Britain and MI:13. That's the level New Exiles and She Hulk were canceled at. Supposedly a marketing guy at Marvel let slip the book was canceled, then withdrew his remarks. I think canceled is a subjective term. It's safe for another 7 issues and it's being pushed by Marvel at the moment, so I suspect they're more likely to see if that reaps any benefits. I love the book and really hope it does well, but if it lost ground even WITH a villain variant, I fear for this book. A lot. And also really don't understand why sales aren't what the book deserves.
Don't ask about NYX. 13k and sliding. Ouch. I guess it was a book that was of its moment and no one wanted to return to it, because sales for this miniseries have been horrible.
So, predictions: Captain Britain should get a bit of a boost from the promotion Marvel's doing, but I predict the solicited issue 15 will be the last. X-men Legacy will be scrapped, drop the Legacy and relaunched as a team book again and soon. Fresh title, writer and cast, I predict although that's hard on Mike Carey, who got saddled with an albatross. X-Factor should be safe for a bit longer. Same for X-Force, although I'll be surprised if it makes it past issue 25. Young X-men's gone and I think they'll shelve the idea of a teen X-men book for a year or so and see how the New Mutants title does. I predict sales of that leveling about the 45k mark. Uncanny now seems to be locked in with Bendis' plans and, as we know, Bendis appears to be immune to any interference, so, despite the sliding sales, I doubt we'll see any change there for a year. By all standards Fraction's run is hurting sales, but Marvel seem strangely oblivious to things like that where the pet writers are concerned.
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Date: 2009-01-29 11:50 pm (UTC)Marvel fails.
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Date: 2009-01-29 11:59 pm (UTC)Posted!
Date: 2009-01-31 06:35 pm (UTC)