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Marvel's taking of the #1 spot was indicative of its overall Top 10 performance, claiming 9 out of the top 10 slots. As with the previous three months' Actual Sales statistics released by Diamond, the chart does not just reflect preorders, but what was ordered by retailers and shipped by Diamond. While we went into detail in February in regards to where the numbers come from in the actual sales chart versus preorder, let's do a quick recap - preorder charts only counted orders placed by retailers by the Initial Order Cut Off Date. The actual sales charts reflect those same comics, in addition to orders for advance reorders and back stock or overprint orders placed by retailers - all the orders must be placed prior to Diamond's Final Order Cut Off Date, roughly 20 days before a book goes on sale. The top 25 titles shipped (and estimated copies of each) in May were: 1) Wolverine
#1 (168,250) Newsarama Note: Estimated copies are just that - estimates of books shipped through Diamond to retailers. As such, the variability of ht estimates is lower on publishers exclusive to Diamond. For the third month in a row, Marvel held with 20 titles in the top 25, with DC accounting for four, and Dreamwave for one. Standouts in the ranking are Venom #1, the relaunch of the character/concept in its own series as part of the Tsunami initiative, ranking at #10, with an approximate 98,000 copies shipped. Arguably, the character is experiencing a resurgence of interest, thanks to his/its recent introduction into the Ultimate line via Ultimate Spider-Man and its upcoming appearance in the new Paul Jenkins/Humberto Ramos Spectacular Spider-Man. Also of note in the Top 25 is the final issue of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2, placing its highest to date, more than likely as a result of retailers anticipating slightly higher demand on the project thanks to the upcoming movie. The first Image title, Spawn #125 (approximately a year late in shipping) ranked at #32 (43,391 copies); the first Dark Horse title, Criminal Macabre #1 ranked at #85 (25,573), and the first CrossGen title, Sojourn #23 ranked at #94 (24,474), up six slots from April. Aside from Venom #1 and New Mutants #1, the next highest debut in May was The Authority Vol. 2 #1, which ranked at #26, with approximately 46,994 copies shipped. As with previous charts, estimating numbers of copies ordered, based on the actual chart is tricky at best and impossible at worst. Diamond does give each title in the actual sales Top 300 a Guide number, with Batman being 100.00. Again - the index numbers are based on Batman (due to historically, the title being a stable seller through Diamond). As before, very roughly if Batman saw orders invoiced for 100,000 copies, then Ultimate Spider-Man #41, with a guide number of 71.34 had orders for 71,340. Currently, Batman is selling above 100,000 copies, so the index number is multiplied by Batman's estimated orders to produce each subsequent comic's approximate volume. This month was a throwback of sorts to when Batman wasn't the highest-selling title, resulting in Wolverine #1 having a guide ranking of higher than 100.0, that is 110.2. For the full listing of the Top 300, click here. Going back to a Newsarama index of sorts, the 50% drop off (that is, the distance between the 100.00 ranked book and the 50.00 ranked title, which represents a 50% fall off in copies ordered is a little wider than last month's - barely. In May, 50.00 rank came between the #11 and #12 books. The widening of the distance between the 100.00 and 50.00 index number is a good thing, suggesting that more titles are selling more copies to retailers. Also, another quick back of the envelope comparison, in April, the #11 book was Wolverine #168 with an approximate 62,031 copies shipped. This month's #11 book, Transformers Generation One Vol. 2 #2 saw an estimated 78,750 copies ship. Some titles of note in the Top 300 actual sales: Voltron: Defender of the Universe #1 made a strong showing for Devil's Due, whose Micronauts titles have been sliding of late, coming in at #34, with an estimated 42,917 copies shipped. Interestingly, Young Justice/Titans: Graduation Day saw about a 4,000 copy drop between issues #1 and #2, The #100 spot was occupied by John Carpenter's Snake Plissken #1 with an estimated 22,795 copies ordered. BPRD: Soul of Venice made a strong showing at #109, with an approximate 20,398 copies. Buzz Books: Catwoman #19 #87 - 25,146 (up roughly 2,000 copies from April) Spider-Girl #60 #93 - 24,489 (up a smidge from April's estimates) HERO #4 #102 - 22,275 (roughly unchanged from April) Gotham Central #7 #114 - 19,268 (roughly unchanged from April) Imprints and Publishers Tsunami Titles: Wolverine: Snikt #1 debuted at #30, with an estimated 44,994 copies. Mystique #2 ranked at #31, shipping an estimated 43,482 copies, down from #1, which shipped an estimated 48,143 copies (#1 debuted at 25 with 48,143 copies). Inhumans #1 ranked at #37, with an estimated 41,131 copies. Human Torch #2 ranked at #52, with 32,291 copies (#1 debuted at #43 with 37,557 copies) Sentinel #2 landed at #74, with 24,405 copies (#1 debuted at #50 with 34,829 copies). Runaways #2 ranked at #88 with 24,718 copies (#1 debuted at #84 with 26,149 copies) By and large, while Marvel seems to be supporting its Tsunami titles for now (with a publication of a Sentinel/Runaways must have, numbers on the titles from the initiative are sliding toward what Jemas once derisively referred to as "DC numbers," meaning ripe for cancellation. While many of the Tsunami titles have been well received critically, and are at least, moderate commercial successes, the question has been raised along the way by observers of how much support the books will receive from Marvel once they start sliding into the danger zone wherein other books have been cancelled. Marvel has said that its Epic line is structured in a way in order to maintain profitability while publishing lower numbers of books, however, Tsunami is not part of the Epic line. Wildstorm Titles A debut and two licensed books are this DC imprint's best-selling titles. Authority
v. 2 #1 - #26 - 46,994 Vertigo What will be interesting to watch from this angle will be Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso come this fall when they move to Batman, following Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb's "Hush" storyline. Batman has consistently sold over 120,000 copies for months, while Azzarello and Risso's 100 Bullets hovers near 20,000 copies. Arguably, Fables #13
#83 - 26,657 CrossGen Again, while most CrossGen titles remain tightly clustered, there has been some spreading (both up and down) in recent months, as the publisher has added titles. Sojourn
#23 #94 - 24,474 20K Club The 20,000 cutoff point appears to be around ranking #112 and #113, with Solus #3 coming in at #112 with an estimated 20,199 copies ordered (a very odd place to see a book illustrated by George Perez), and Global Frequency #8 landing at #113 with an estimated 19,695 copies ordered. Many titles are clustered in the 15-20,000 range, including Gotham Central (up about 1,000 copies from last month), , Black Panther (up from last month), and Human Defense Corps #1 (approx 17,146 copies). Traditionally, the 20,000 mark is the cutoff for Marvel cancellation, however, the only titles from the publisher in that bracket are the already cancelled Black Panther and Soldier X. Also in that bracket is 411(16,626 copies, est), and The Call #2 (14,672 copies, est). The final issue of the series, and guidebook for EPIC, Marville #7 ranked at #147, with an estimated 13,756 copies ordered. As far as the rest of the dead pool goes, some already cancelled series include: Thunderbolts #79 at #105, with an estimated 20,9032 copies Power Company #16 at #145, with an estimated 14,046 copies ordered. Doom Patrol #20 at #146, with an estimated 13,756 copies. Hunter: Age of Magic #23 at #158 with an estimated 12,016 copies ordered. American Century #24 at #170 with an estimated 9,909 copies. It should be noted that while titles selling under 20,000 copies a month (not counting reorders after the order is placed) usually bear the mark of death at Marvel and DC, due to corporate structuring, some titles from other Top 5 publishers can continue and even modestly thrive. For example, the bulk of CrossGen's titles rank between #134 (Brath) and #158 (Meridian), and sell between 16,000 and 12,000 copies a month. Likewise, such numbers are de rigueur for Image titles and other small press books. The first reorder comes in at #166 - Batman #614 with an approximate 10,657 copies reordered, placing its reorder ahead of first run titles, such as Sleeper #5, Sweatshop #2, The Crossovers #5 and Vertigo Pop: Bangkok #1. The highest ranked "kid's comic" was The Power Puff Girls at #181, with an estimated 8,550 copies. The Under 10K Club The 10,000 copy cutoff point appears to come roughly between ranking #163 (Karza #4 at 10,077 copies) and #164 (Crossovers #5 at 9,909 copies). Some titles selling less than 10,000 copies include: Dominion, Invincible, Clockmaker (the three remaining titles of Image's superhero line), Tech Jacket, Warren Ellis' Scars, Berlin and virtually all comic published by Archie. Of course, whether or not any given comic is profitable at that level of orders depends upon the publisher and talent. While many self-published and small press books can pull off selling less than 10,000 copies, it gets admittedly trickier with larger publishers. For example, take a $2.95 cover price comics with an estimated 9,000 copies ordered. Retail, that comes to $26,550.00. However, retailers, on average, pay about 55% of the cover price (some more, some less, depending upon the retailer and the publisher) for their comics from Diamond, reflecting an average 45% discount off of cover price. That said, Diamond collects roughly, $14,602.50. Diamond gets all of that money from the retail accounts, and then cuts the publisher a check for a percentage of that. Percentages (that is, discounts that the publisher sells their product to Diamond for) vary, but 60% off cover is a decent ballpark. For example, a publisher would sell a $10.00 book to Diamond for $4.00. Again, very, very generally, but using 60% as our discount for the above publisher, Diamond owes the publisher $10,620 for all the issues it sold. Diamond cuts the publisher a check for that amount, and keeps the remainder, $3982.50. Back on the publisher's side, they now have $10,620 for that issue, to pay the creators (writer, penciller, inker, colorist, letterer, cover artist, and any set-up charges), staff (editor), and overhead (lights air, coffee, office staff, office equipment, and foot massages). Using some general industry guidelines, the writer can get around 30% of that, and the penciller another 25-30%, so from the very beginning, the publisher can be down to $4248 for the rest of the team, the staff, and overhead. Again, this was all very general numbers, as discounts vary from retailer to retailer and publisher to publisher. Again, it should be noted that many of the publishers in the lower end of the Top 300 are not exclusive to Diamond, and have other avenues to distribute their books. 5K and Below While, as stated above, many publishers can apparently make less than 10,000 monthly copies work, under 5,000 copies is where flags start going up, pipes burst, rivets pop, the engine room starts to flood, and the whole shebang is in danger of going down under the waves for many publishers, as the costs of publishing a book with such low numbers are barely being met, unless said publisher is able to drastically keep production prices low. By Newsarama estimates, the 5,000 level appears to be just between #203 and #204 on the chart, that is, Devil's Footprints #3 and Poison Elves #73. Titles seeing less that 5,000 monthly copies ordered in May include: Mr. Gum, Paradigm, Mucha Lucha, Freeemind, Spirit of the Amazon, and Sammy, Tourist Trap. Also - looking at the numbers of books under the 5,000 copy mark, many reorders come into play, including a handful of Marvel reorders, which appear to be moving 1,000 to 1,500 copies. Looking at the reorders of books that shipped in recent months (just reorders and not items on Diamond's STAR System), the activity is dominated by Marvel and DC, with virtually no reorders from any other publisher in the Top 5. However, just because they are not listed doe not mean no other company is shipping reorders. Their absence on the Top 300 list means that reorder activity for any given title available for reorder is under roughly 1,023 copies. The #300 book this moth had an approximate 1,023 copies ordered. The #300 book in April had an estimated 1,628 copies ordered. The Trade Game As with issue #6 of the current series, it is possible that retailers were ordering heavy on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in anticipation of the movie as well, as the trade of the first series was the #1 trade ordered by Diamond retail accounts for May, with approximately 11,191 copies of the $14.95 book shipped. The Top 25 trades for May (and estimated copies shipped) were: 1) League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen - 11,191 Breaking down the Top 50 by publisher: Marvel: 15 For the Top 50 list of May's trades and graphic novels, click here. Market Share If you've been following along, May's Market Share won't come as any real surprise - Marvel topped both dollars and units for the month, accounting for 34.68% and 41.82%, respectively, up in both categories form April's numbers. The Top 5 in terms of dollar share percentage: 1) Marvel -
34.68 The Top 5 in terms of unit share percentage: 1) Marvel -
41.82 For the full market percentages, click here.
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Diamond
has released its actual sales data for comics and related products
ordered by its accounts during the money of May 2003. Breaking DC's
four-month run, Marvel's Wolverine #1 took the #1 spot for
books sold, with an estimated 168,250 copies, according to Newsarama
estimates. Marvel also ranked #1 in dollar and unit share for the
month as well.