Star Wars Sales Retreat In January; Marvel Has a Plan

The Comics Chronicles released the January 2017 estimated sales on Monday.  The top selling book was Marvel's U.S.Avengers #1 which had the benefit of 54 state variant covers but still only managed to ship an estimated 110,729 units.  This was followed by DC's Batman #14 and 15 in 2nd and 3rd place which both also saw units of over 100,000 copies.  Everything else shipped less than 100,000 units.  Star Wars #27 was Marvel's 2nd best selling ongoing title, not including #1 issues, behind Amazing Spider-Man #23.  January's chart is notable because Marvel over-shipped their entire line by 10%.  This means U.S.Avengers took the top spot for units distributed, but only because of the over-shipping.

Title	Issue	Monthly Rank	Estimated Sales	Last Estimated Sales	Percent Change
Star Wars	27	7	72,331	104,563	-30.83%
Doctor Aphra	3	31	48,592	61,417	-20.88%
Poe Dameron	10	56	40,091	38,839	+3.22%

Last month, I corrected the mistake I made explaining that Star Wars #26 increased sales due to it being the first arc starring Yoda.  That is made very clear in January with the units shipped slipping by over 32,000 and that is with a 10% overage.  10% is not insignificant, so approximately 66,000 copies were ordered by retailers and the other 6,000+ copies were given to retailers free by Marvel.  Star Wars #25 had estimated sales of 75,234 units.  Clearly Marvel's over-shipment program is intended to hide the declining numbers as the Star Wars title shed approximately 9,000 units in 2 months.

Unfortunately, things do not look better for the Doctor Aphra title which saw a decline of almost 13,000 units.  With the 10% over-shipping, approximately 44,000 copies were ordered by retailers, meaning Doctor Aphra saw orders slip by approximately 17,400 units from December.  Doctor Aphra replaced the Darth Vader title and Darth Vader #24 sold approximately 75,401 units.  This means Doctor Aphra is under-performing the Darth Vader title significantly.  In fact, Doctor Aphra #3 is under-performing every Star Wars title's 3rd issue, ongoing or mini-series, except for The Force Awakens #3.  It is a good bet this was not Marvel's intent when they replace Darth Vader with this title and I will be surprised if this title sees more than 12 issues.

The one bright spot is the Poe Dameron title, which saw over 1,000 more units ship in January over December.  Granted, if it was not for the 10% overage, the title would have ship just over 36,000 units which would have actually be a decline from month-to-month, but a much smaller decline than the other two Star Wars ongoing titles.

In February the Darth Maul 5-part mini-series began and in April we will get the first issue of the Rogue One movie adaptation.  Marvel is wisely using a crossover event in May to boost sales.  That month, the Star Wars and Doctor Aphra crossover event, The Screaming Citadel, begins.  Like Vader Down, this crossover should provide a much needed boost to both these ongoing titles.

There is much consternation over Marvel's declining sales.  Their over-shipment program the past 2 months has effectively glossed over the problem and if these 2 months prove to be a blip for Marvel, that would be great.  While it is nice to see Marvel send out copies of their comics for free to retailers, I hope the gesture is not in vain and these extra copies result in increased readership across their line.

The following table shows the total number of Star Wars units sold per month since January 2015 along with the average number of sales per issue.

Month/Year	Total Estimated Sales	# Issues	Average Sale per Issue
January 2015	985,976	1	985,976
February 2015	526,451	3	175,484
March 2015	596,299	4	149,075
April 2015	537,812	4	134,453
May 2015	324,835	3	108,278
June 2015	396,931	4	99,232
July 2015	597,023	5	119,404
August 2015	430,241	5	86,048
September 2015	551,880	5	110,376
October 2015	953,289	10	95,329
November 2015	1,003,954	8	125,494
December 2015	507,545	6	84,591
January 2016	465,698	5	93,139
February 2016	288,355	4	72,088
March 2016	355,554	5	71,110
April 2016	533,976	5	106,795
May 2016	299,189	4	74,797
June 2016	545,833	6	90,972
July 2016	359,166	5	71,833
August 2016	322,499	5	64,500
September 2016	174,420	3	58,140
October 2016	339,778	5	67,956
November 2016	269,975	5	53,995
December 2016	303,886	4	75,972
January 2017	161,014	3	53,671

The average sale per issue of 53,671 would rank 27th on the top 300 chart for the month of January.  Star Wars trade paperbacks, reprint titles, and reorders are not accounted for with these numbers.  The Star Wars trade paperbacks are strong sellers.

Take a look at the Star Wars Sales Estimate Chart and please read the blog posting January 2017 comics sales estimates online; overships visible in charts (without affecting much) .