More Archie #s

[gentlesatirist]

There's a long Archie Comics profile in the current (2/07) issue of Vanity Fair magazine. That fact in itself is somewhat amazing. But the story also quotes some sales data that I found to be interesting.

The author cites circulation data showing that Archie sells 550,000 comics per month. He cites 8 monthly titles and also refers to the digests, although he doesn't number them.

If Archie has 8 monthlies and 2 digests, that means each sells a respectable 55,000 per month.

If it's 8 monthlies and 4 digests, that brings the average to a still respectable number of about 45,000. There are many DC and Marvel titles that don't hit either of these targets.

The author also says that Archie's 6 million annual sales total is a shade above annual sales of DC's "youth line," which sounds like he's describing their Johnny DC animated-style line.

Even if we round down and say that the half-dozen Johnny DC titles sell "only"400,000 per month, that would give individual titles like Batman Strikes, Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans Go monthly sales averages of more than 60,000 - another number reached by few DC/Marvel titles.

Those numbers obviously are much higher than what Diamond reports for sales of Archie or Johnny DC titles to comic shops.


- FE
Wickliffe OH

[Hintermann]

If Archie comics are selling so well in their longstanding 'traditional' format, where was the need to 'modernise' them - as in those other threads?

[gentlesatirist]

...didn't mention the redesign at all, which I thought was odd.

Even though Archie officials were interviewed for the story, there's no mention of it, which had to have aggravated the reporter, who probably wrote the story at least a month ago. ("Couldn't you have mentioned this BEFORE my story ran?") Especially since one of the main elements of the story is the steadfastness of the characters in an ever-changing world.


- FE

[Buzz Dixon]

Regular ARCHIE comics sell in the 12-18K range, the digests sell in the hundreds of thousands. The digests are where the real money is made: They're almost entirely reprints (which I don't recall the Archie company paying royalties on) and they're sold primarily in supermarkets and drugstores on the checkout stand, making them great impulse buys (coming in two page counts/price points is also brilliant; a parent balking at the $3.59 192-page digest might say yes to the $2.49 96-page digest).

The regular comics are great for PR purposes and for introducing new ideas/new characters; otherwise they serve as loss leaders to generate material for the digests.

In many very real ways, ARCHIE is the last of the traditional comic book companies and perhaps the most intelligently run.

[gentlesatirist]

...seeing as how that still would place actual Archie comic sales at 8 or 9x what's reported by Diamond.

Those digests have to be pure profit, beyod printing costs, since Archie already has paid for the work.


- FE