The Comics Chronicles released the July 2016 estimated sales last month. DC dominated the top of the charts with their DC Rebirth relaunches. Marvel's top title, the Civil War II mini-series, took the 4th and 7th position on the chart. Marvel's next title to chart was Star Wars, in position 23 and the only Star Wars title to break into the top 25 titles for the month. This was also Marvel's top ongoing title for the month.
| Title | Issue | Monthly Rank | Estimated Sales | Last Estimated Sales | Percent Change |
|---|
| Star Wars | 21 | 23 | 90,863 | 96,047 | -5.40% |
| Han Solo | 2 | 26 | 83,738 | 152,596 | -45.12% |
| Darth Vader | 23 | 30 | 77,430 | 77,610 | -0.23% |
| Poe Dameron | 4 | 44 | 57,712 | 60,889 | -5.22% |
| The Force Awakens | 2 | 51 | 49,423 | 79,626 | -37.93% |
Every Star Wars title saw a drop in units sold, although the Darth Vader title had a very negligible dip of a 100+ units. The Star Wars and Darth Vader issues were the lowest selling issues for each title to date and, like last month, failed to rank in the top 10 comics. Darth Vader #25 is the final issues for that series and so far Marvel has not solicited a Star Wars title to replace it. Interestingly, Darth Vader was Marvel's third best selling ongoing title for the month, behind Star Wars and Amazing Spider-Man. One can only imagine Marvel will want a replacement title that does as well as Darth Vader has.
Poe Dameron saw a loss of 3,000+ units compared to last month which is a decent slowing of the number of units shed. It sold approximately 5,500 more units than Kanan #4, a gain of 1,000 units over last month. If this decline slowdown continues, Poe Dameron should find a decent sales floor above the Kanan title.
Han Solo had the largest percentage drop of the Star Wars titles with a decrease in unit sales of 45.12%. Here is a table of the other modern mini-series with 2nd and 1st issues sales as well as the percentage change between those issues:
| Title | Issue #2 Estimated Sales | Issue #1 Estimated Sales | Percent Change |
|---|
| Princess Leia | 96,262 | 253,655 | -62.05% |
| Lando | 71,043 | 192,949 | -63.18% |
| Shattered Empire | 119,508 | 208,884 | -42.79% |
| Chewbacca | 74,311 | 122,952 | -39.56% |
| Obi-Wan and Anakin | 58,431 | 102,861 | -43.19% |
The Han Solo title's percentage drop is inline with the other mini-series. This mini-series was well received, unlike the Chewbacca mini-series, so on the surface, it is surprising that issue #2 only sold 9,400+ units more than Chewbacca #2. Much of this has to do with how comics are ordered; orders for issue #2 would have been sent in before issue #1 went on sale. It is possible Marvel will issue a 2nd printing for Han Solo #2. I'm also expecting a much smaller decline for the 3rd issue.
The Force Awakens mini-series continues to outperform the previous 2 movie adaptations: the Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. When comparing The Force Awakens to the other mini-series Marvel has published, it had the lowest percentage change from issue #1 to issue #2. Hopefully these numbers are sufficient for Marvel to continue to adapt future Star Wars movies to comics. Since Marvel also releases hardcover collections of the movie adaptations and The Force Awakens will undoubtedly get the same treatment, Marvel should be looking at these as long term investments that they can publish collections for every few years.
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. Note this chart does not include reprints.
| 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 |
The average sale per issue would rank 37th on the top 300 chart for the month of July, the lowest ranking average for the Star Wars titles to date. Star Wars trade paperbacks 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
July 2016 comics sales estimates: 16 issues top 100,000 copies sold, DC takes 30 of Top 40.
