Star Wars Steady in August

Comichron released the August 2017 estimated sales a few months back and the Star Wars titles held steady.  Dark Nights Metal #1 was the top selling book followed by Batman #28 and 29.  Marvel's top selling comic was Secret Empire #10 in 4th place, but the main Star Wars title remained Marvel's best selling ongoing title.

Title	Issue	Monthly Rank	Estimated Sales	Last Estimated Sales	Percent Change
Star Wars	34	9	66,628	74,969	-11.13%
Star Wars	35	10	65,943	66,628	-1.03%
Jedi Republic - Mace Windu	1	12	62,543	n/a	n/a
Darth Vader	4	14	58,380	59,522	-1.92%
Rogue One - Cassian & K2SO Special	1	30	43,765	n/a	n/a
Doctor Aphra	11	50	36,472	37,481	-2.69%
Doctor Aphra Annual	1	52	34,473	n/a	n/a
Poe Dameron	18	61	33,443	34,250	-2.36%
Rogue One	5	102	22,372	23,826	-6.10%

Last month Star War #33 was the first of a series of five standalone stories by Jason Aaron.  The last standalone story will be Star Wars #37 at which point new writer Kieron Gillen will take over the main Star Wars title with issue #38.  While Star Wars #34 saw a higher than normal drop of 11.13% from the previous issue, I expect the remaining Jason Aaron issues to sell at similar levels.  Star Wars double shipped in August and issue #35 fell less than 700 units.

Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, and Poe Dameron also had insignificant drops in units sold.  The penultimate issue of the Rogue One mini-series fell another 1,400+ units and is the first Marvel issue to not place in the top 100 comics sold for the month.

Jedi Republic - Mace Windu had the lowest debut of a non-movie adaptation mini-series.  Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker had the previous lowest debut with an estimated 102,861 initial units sold.  In comparison, Jedi Republic - Mace Windu had an anemic start of 62,543 units.  It is hard to say why Mace Windu #1 had lower numbers; the last non-movie adaptation was Darth Maul which had initial sales of 105,177 estimated initial units.  Based on the initial negative reactions to Mace Windu #1, I expect the title to not hold up very well.

Marvel had nine issues in August and one-shots accounted for the last two comics.  Rogue One - Cassian & K2SO Special had decent sales, coming in as the 30th place comic and Doctor Aphra Annual had sales inline with the ongoing series.

Also shipping in August was the first comic from IDW, the Star Wars: The Force Awakens graphic novel.  This book is the U.S. version of the same comic published overseas.  The first six movie adaptations were published overseas as well and were collected into original and prequel trilogy books published by Disney-Lucasfilm Press.  As this is a graphic novel and not a pamplet, it was not included into the above chart, but next month the first pamphlet from IDW, the all-age Star Wars Adventures begins.

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
May 2017	285,363	6	47,560
June 2017	495,588	9	55,065
July 2017	326,062	7	46,580
August 2017	425,473	9	47,274

The average sale per issue of 47,274 would rank 28th on the top 300 chart for the month of August.  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 Estimates Charts and please read the blog posting Dark Nights Metal ships 262k copies, most of 2017, beating Rebirth #1's first month: August comics sales estimates.