Posted in: Comics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Skottie Young's Rocket Raccoon Pushed Aside Skottie Snyder's Batman In July, As Marvel Recovers Marketshare From DC Comics

rocketraccon1fkdoThat's the power of Loot Crate. But Rocket would probably still have had the top spot anyway when a certain film was already on the way and soon to be released.

150,000 of the 300,000 preorders through Diamond for Rocket Raccoon #1 by Skottie Young were reserved for the aforementioned geek subscription service.

But that still left 150,000 for normal direct market comic stores. And the usual market leader, Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo was pushed to second place in July's comics sales chart.

And while this helped Marvel grab back some of the marketshare DC had taken from them in recent months, DC are still ahead of where they were earlier in the year.

So in May, June and July, DC Comics' dollar share dropped from 30.04% to 29.88% to 28.18%. While their unit share, the number of actual comics sold regardless of price, fell from 33.52% to 33.20% to 31.32%. Lower, sure, but compared to April's 23.65% and 27.24% respectively, it's still well above where it was. This can be credited to a mix of themed variant covers and the success of the new weekly titles.

Meanwhile Marvel's dollar share, which dropped from 34.38% to 33.71% last month, jumped up to 35.09% and their unit share which had fallen from 36.46% to 35.68%, leapt back up to 38.39%.

As well as Rocket, the launch of Spider-Man 2099, two issues of Original Sin, the appearance of Silk in Amazing Spider-Man and the launch of fellow Guardians book Star-Lord, helped push Marvel's sales in July, claiming six out of the top ten spots compared to DC's four.

Image Comics increased their dollar share from 8.93% to 9.25% but not their unit share, which fell from 10.51% to 9.82%. This could indicate a smaller price rise at the publisher with more titles moving from $2.99 to $3.50 or $3.99 – or it could simply be the new Walking Dead collection being released, taking the top of the graphic novel chart. Meanwhile, IDW pushed both their marketshare for dollar and unit sales ahead of Dark Horse.

But for everyone, sales went up last month.  July was a five week month compared to June's four weeks, but it saw a much larger rise, over 30% increase in dollars spent and almost 30% increase in unit sales. After a few softer months earlier in 2014, it appears that direct market sales are on the rise again, folks…

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

RETAIL MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 35.09%
DC ENTERTAINMENT 28.18%
IMAGE COMICS 9.25%
IDW PUBLISHING 5.21%
DARK HORSE COMICS 5.02%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.18%
ARCHIE COMICS 2.04%
BOOM! STUDIOS 1.76%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD 1.05%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 1.05%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 9.18%
UNIT MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 38.39%
DC ENTERTAINMENT 31.32%
IMAGE COMICS 9.82%
IDW PUBLISHING 4.11%
DARK HORSE COMICS 3.80%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.16%
ARCHIE COMICS 1.88%
BOOM! STUDIOS 1.78%
TITAN 1.03%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC 0.89%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 4.81%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER COMICS SHIPPED GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED MAGAZINES SHIPPED TOTAL SHIPPED
MARVEL COMICS 93 36 0 129
DC ENTERTAINMENT 97 31 0 128
IMAGE COMICS 66 17 0 83
IDW PUBLISHING 48 31 0 79
DARK HORSE COMICS 39 29 0 68
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 40 4 0 44
BOOM! STUDIOS 29 4 0 33
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT 14 4 0 18
ARCHIE COMICS 15 5 0 20
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS 0 0 10 10
OTHER NON-TOP 10 89 151 39 279

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

  DOLLARS UNITS
JULY 2014 VS. JUNE 2014
COMICS 32.22% 29.25%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 21.04% 24.64%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 28.66% 28.88%
JULY 2014 VS. JULY 2013
COMICS 19.23% 14.73%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 4.84% 4.59%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 14.52% 13.87%
YEAR-TO-DATE 2014 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2013
COMICS 1.76% -3.16%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 3.25% 5.27%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 2.22% -2.51%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 ROCKET RACCOON #1 $3.99 MAR
2 BATMAN #33 $4.99 DC
3 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #4 $3.99 MAR
4 ORIGINAL SIN #5 $3.99 MAR
5 SPIDER-MAN 2099 #1 $3.99 MAR
6 ORIGINAL SIN #6 $3.99 MAR
7 JUSTICE LEAGUE #32 $3.99 DC
8 GRAYSON #1 $2.99 DC
9 THE LEGENDARY STAR-LORD #1 $3.99 MAR
10 HARLEY QUINN #8 $2.99 DC

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 21: ALL-OUT WAR PART 2 (MR) $14.99 IMA
2 AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER VOL. 8: RIFT PART 2 TP $10.99 DAR
3 DEADLY CLASS VOLUME 1: REAGAN YOUTH TP (MR) $9.99 IMA
4 SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR) $9.99 IMA
5 BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY: SECONDS GN $25.00 RAN
6 DEADPOOL VOLUME 5: THE WEDDING OF DEADPOOL TP $15.99 MAR
7 SAGA VOLUME 3 TP (MR) $14.99 IMA
8 STAR WARS: THE LUCAS DRAFT TP $19.99 DAR
9 BATMAN VOLUME 1: THE COURT OF OWLS TP $16.99 DC
10 LAZARUS VOLUME 2: LIFT TP (MR) $14.99 IMA

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 THE OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE VOLUME 44 SC $29.95 GEM
2 THE OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE VOLUME 44 HC $35.00 GEM
3 STAR WARS: GOODNIGHT, DARTH VADER HC $14.95 CHR
4 THE SAKAI PROJECT: 30 YEARS OF USAGI YOJIMBO HC $29.99 DAR
5 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S THE JEDI DOTH RETURN HC $14.95 RAN
6 MIKE MIGNOLA'S HELLBOY ARTIST'S EDITION $95.00 IDW
7 STERANKO'S NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD ARTIST'S EDITION $112.50 IDW
8 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: AN ORIGIN STORY YR HC $12.99 HAC
9 FRANK MILLER: THE ART OF SIN CITY TP $25.00 DAR
10 THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL ANNUAL VOLUME 1 SC $14.95 SAN

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR
1 ARKHAM ASYLUM: THE JOKER/HARLEY QUINN/BATMAN/THE SCARECROW ACTION FIGURE 4-PACK DC
2 MARVEL SELECT: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER: THE FALCON ACTION FIGURE DST
3 POWER RANGERS LEGACY DRAGONZORD BAN
4 DC COMICS: BATGIRL "NEW 52" ARTFX+ STATUE KOT
5 DC COMICS SUPER VILLAINS: ARMORED LEX LUTHOR DELUXE FIGURE DC
6 MARVEL: SPIDER-WOMAN BISHOUJO STATUE KOT
7 DC COMICS: NEW 52 POWERGIRL & HUNTRESS ACTION FIGURE 2-PACK DC
8 DC COMICS: NEW 52 EARTH-2 WONDER WOMAN ACTION FIGURE DC
9 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURLES MINI-FIGURES SERIES 1 BEA
10 DC COMICS COVER GIRLS: POISON IVY STATUE DC

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR
1 MARVEL HEROCLIX: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY BOOSTER PACKS NEC
2 MONOPOLY: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION USA
3 MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: 2015 CORE SET BOOSTER PACKS WIZ
4 MARVEL HEROCLIX: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY STARTER SET NEC
5 RISK LEGACY HAS
6 MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: 2015 CORE SET FAT PACK WIZ
7 JUSTICE LEAGUE STRATEGY GAME NEC
8 DC HEROCLIX: WAR OF LIGHT BOOSTER BRICK WAVE 1 NEC
9 MARVEL LEGENDARY: VILLAINS DECK BUILDING GAME CORE SET WIZ
10 THE BIG BANG THEORY MONOPOLY USA

 

d1

Dollar Market Share – July 2014

d2

Unit Market Share – July 2014


Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
twitterfacebookinstagramwebsite
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.