| Title | Monthly Rank | Estimated Sales | Last Estimated Sales | Percent Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars | 30 | 8 | 70,175 | 72,017 | -2.56% |
| Rogue One | 1 | 13 | 64,518 | N/A | N/A |
| Darth Maul | 3 | 23 | 54,949 | 60,415 | -9.05% |
| Doctor Aphra | 6 | 47 | 40,458 | 42,465 | -4.73% |
| Poe Dameron | 13 | 52 | 36,994 | 38,696 | -4.40% |
The main Star Wars title saw a standard downward drift in units sold. With this title participating in the Screaming Citadel crossover event next month, I expect a decent jump in sales. This title saw an increase of almost 17,000 units for the Vader Down event back in November 2015. It is not unreasonable to expect an increase of 10,000 to 15,000 units.
Both Doctor Aphra and Poe Dameron saw a significant slip of around 4.5% in units sold. These numbers for Doctor Aphra have to be disappointing for Marvel and this is only the sixth issue! Doctor Aphra will be saved, at least for a while, by the Screaming Citadel crossover event next month. It will be interesting to see how big of an increase it will receive. While Poe Dameron #13 is not the lowest selling issue for an ongoing series, it is very close.
The Rogue One adaptation debuted with over 64,500 units sold. In comparison, The Force Awakens #1 sold over 79,500 units or roughly 15,000 more units. Regardless, Rogue One still took 13th place on the charts whereas The Force Awakens was in 20th place.
As mentioned for the past few months, Darth Maul is selling roughly the same numbers as the Obi-Wan and Anakin mini-series. Nothing has changed this month.
Next month, we get the debut of the Screaming Citadel event!
There have been a number of articles in the past month concerning Marvel's lagging sales compared to a year ago. All of the attention has been on the superhero titles and the causes and remedies needed bring those numbers back up. It is plain to see that the Star Wars line of comics has also suffered from whatever is ailing Marvel and, to a certain extent, the entire industry, which is why I'm not entirely sure some of the remedies being bandied about are going to really have a long term effect on sales. Marvel has a new series this summer titled Generations which will lead to them bringing back their classic heroes and original numbering in an event titled Marvel Legacy. I could be wrong, but to me this feels like more of the same; a Marvel event followed by renumbering a large number of titles in their line, except this time they are going to number the titles to where they would be if they hadn't kept rebooting the numbering over the years. No doubt this will give Marvel another reason to reboot titles in the future with a new #1. Naturally, this event will boost Marvel's superhero line, but for how long?
I cannot be the only Star Wars collector who is feeling burnt out on the number of ratio'd variants Marvel publishes for these titles. Marvel, please stop the ratio'd variants! Publish variants, but don't limit them and give every fan a chance to buy them. If you want to sell more books to fans, why make it hard for them to buy your product? Additionally, at least for the main Star Wars title, the recent Yoda story arc was dull. To be honest, I also think Doctor Aphra's first story arc was weak, but I know this character has a lot of fans who are willing to give the title a chance. We need to see a return to some decent stories like the main title had up through the Rebel Jail story. Everything after that has been lackluster with a few exceptions.
One thing that the Star Wars line has that Marvel's superhero line does not is mini-series. Marvel has recently said the Star Wars line is the only place the mini-series format sells. I'm glad to hear this as most of these mini-series have been pretty good. The Lando, Han Solo, and Darth Maul mini-series are some of the best stories to come out of this era of Star Wars comics.
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 |
| February 2017 | 262,889 | 4 | 65,722 |
| March 2017 | 214,603 | 4 | 53,650 |
| April 2017 | 274,262 | 5 | 54,852 |
The average sale per issue of 54,852 would rank 23rd on the top 300 chart for the month of April. 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 April 2017 comics sales estimates: Beyond Marvel's slow start, rest of industry growing.
No comments:
Post a Comment