DC Dominates Top Ten Comics In February

[CBR News]

DC continues to sweep the top ten comics sold with "Justice League" #6 in first place while Marvel edges ahead in dollar and unit share for the month of February.


Full article here.

[Statham]

Well, it's easier to push more units and make more money when you're double-shipping issues and have dozens of books on that $3.99 pricing.

[the goddamn batman]

so no surprises here.

[0bsessions]

Well, it's easier to push more units and make more money when you're double-shipping issues and have dozens of books on that $3.99 pricing.

Oh yay, this tired rationale. If the vocal internet minority is any indication, that's not really true.

Most fans bitch constantly about the double shipping and higher pricing, claiming it drives them to move away from Marvel and buy more DC product.

Yet here we are, half a year after the New 52 launch, and Marvel is outperforming DC again. Comic book fans operate on a budget and whatever way you want to spin it, Marvel is generating both more dollars and more sales than DC in total. DC may have a stranglehold on the top sellers, but I'd say that makes Marvel being able to outperform DC in the final tallies all the more impressive, especially considering there's really nothing going on in Marvel right now.

Considering the current trend and with nothing particularly huge on the horizon with DC, expect AvX and Ends of the Earth going on concurrently to give Marvel a huge jump.

ETA: As an aside, the double shipping thing loses a lot of what little luster it has when accounting for the fact that 7 of the top 10 titles feature the Batman, Superman or both.

[catburgler_2100]

Not too bad for the books I enjoy, but dc is slipping a bit, wen the second wave and watchmen prequels hit there will be another high for them I'm sure! There are a lot of marvel titles though, never actually realised.

[Ari Gold]

Oh yay, this tired rationale. If the vocal internet minority is any indication, that's not really true.

It's simple math really, if you're going to double-ship 17 of your most popular titles in a single month you will likely sell more units than your competitor . . . not sure what you're even disagreeing with there.

The fact is that DC has 5 different franchises in the Top 10, 2 months in a row now. That's Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman.
Marvel can't even come close to that kind of diversity. All they're doing now is consolidating to 3 Franchises and squeezing more $ from those fans.

The double shipping thing gains a lot of its luster when accounting for the fact that Marvel double-ships all of its most popular titles and doesn't own 7 of the top 10 titles.

[MarvelMaster616]

Double shipping aside, I think it's safe to say that the momentum from the relaunch is fading. AvX hasn't even come out yet and Marvel already has the top slot back. I have a feeling that AvX is only going to widen it and DC will find them in the exact same position they were before the relaunch.

[Ari Gold]

Double shipping aside, I think it's safe to say that the momentum from the relaunch is fading.

That's amusing to say in a month when DC completely swept the Top 10. Fading? Really?

[Cavemold]

Fans going batcrazy.

[0bsessions]

It's simple math really, if you're going to double-ship 17 of your most popular titles in a single month you will likely sell more units than your competitor . . . not sure what you're even disagreeing with there.

The fact is that DC has 5 different franchises in the Top 10, 2 months in a row now. That's Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman.
Marvel can't even come close to that kind of diversity. All they're doing now is consolidating to 3 Franchises and squeezing more $ from those fans.

The double shipping thing gains a lot of its luster when accounting for the fact that Marvel double-ships all of its most popular titles and doesn't own 7 of the top 10 titles.

DC's top ten status is no different than when the Avengers titles had a firm grasp on the top ten (Short of the fact Marvel was winning in both dollar and market then too). As noted, seven of the top ten titles feature Batman or Superman and of the remaining three, two are written by Geoff Johns, a proven seller. It's really no different than when Marvel dominated the top ten routinely with Bendis Avengers material (With the caveat that Marvel was also winning unit and market share on top of it). Basically, I'd be surprised to see Green Lantern or Aquaman in the top ten once Johns leaves one or the other.

And again, I see the double shipping as borderline irrelevant. Comic book fans aren't typically the 1%, they're typically on a budget. That said, if Marvel double ships something it results in one of two things:

They're dropping something else to pick it up.
They're dropping said title because they can't afford the enhanced shipping schedule.

The former means that, based on the fact Marvel's got a pretty consistent spread across the board that there's a high probability that those picking up the double shipped stuff are quite possibly dropping lower tier DC or Marvel titles to compensate. If they're dropping Marvel, it's going to hurt their bottom line. Considering DC's doing more poorly in market share, odds are better than people are dropping lower tier DC titles to pick up the double shipping Marvel titles.

On the other option, let's look at Amazing Spider-Man as a prime example of this effect. We're well past the point where OMD is likely to be having any significant effect on the sales of that book. The biggest purported cause of the lower sales on ASM over the last couple years is the change in shipping, something further proven by the fact ASM has been selling more since dropping from three to two issues a month.

In short, double shipping is frankly overblown as a reason for Marvel's better total figures because for every person buying both monthly issues of a Marvel title, there's odds on going to be someone else dropping the title outright because they can't afford it twice monthly. The alternative is that people are dropping other Marvel titles to compensate (Which would likewise decrease sales rather than increase them) or dropping DC titles to compensate (Which prevents a drop in sales, but at the same time that doesn't exactly reflect well on DC's sales either).

[0bsessions]

That's amusing to say in a month when DC completely swept the Top 10. Fading? Really?

Really.

Sweeping the top ten is a neat idea and all, but a big burst primarily in their flagship titles is less substantial when the line as a whole is losing momentum so quickly after what was probably the biggest comics marketing push since Adjectiveless X-Men #1. Moreso, the fact that Marvel hasn't really had anything big going on outside of Fantastic Four #600 in the last few months really doesn't make the immediate future look all that bright on DC's end.

Basically, if DC can't maintain market share while Marvel isn't doing anything particularly marketable, there are potential concerns to be raised. With Avengers Vs. X-Men, Ends of the Earth and the Avengers film all hitting within the next two months and nothing in the immediate pipeline for DC, odds are good that Marvel will establish a pretty wide gap between them and DC.

Basically, New 52 is looking like Heroes Reborn all over again, basically what skeptics have been saying for months.

[FIFTY-TWO (52)]

Oh yay, this tired rationale.

How is it a "tired rationale" when everyone knows it's the truth.
DC only had one title in the 5th week, and Marvel double-shipped more books at a buck higher.
Everybody's on to what Marvel is doing. There isn't a level playing field. Perhaps DC should consider double shipping all their top ten books.

[Ari Gold]

And again, I see the double shipping as borderline irrelevant. Comic book fans aren't typically the 1%, they're typically on a budget. That said, if Marvel double ships something it results in one of two things:

They're dropping something else to pick it up.
They're dropping said title because they can't afford the enhanced shipping schedule.

I don't think it's that simple. Marvel is trying to get more $$ from it's customers, from the ones who aren't exhausting their disposable income. They can do that by offering a new title, or they can do that by charging more for their current titles, or by shipping more of their current titles. Marvel is finding that options 2 & 3 work best.

If the facts are as simple as you're saying then perhaps Marvel is simply gaming the system, retailers can't order less of Avengers & WatX just because it double-ships 1 every couple of months.

When a book you're buying double-ships do you need to drop other books you were planning to buy that month? If not, why do you assume that applies to others?

Moreso, the fact that Marvel hasn't really had anything big going on outside of Fantastic Four #600 in the last few months really doesn't make the immediate future look all that bright on DC's end.

Marvel's had at least 10 #1's and Wolverine #300 in recent months. That used to qualify as marketable. Marvel's found it more marketable though in recent years to just double-ship their

[Ari Gold]

Perhaps DC should consider double shipping all their top ten books.

Why? Then they'd be in the same boat Marvel is, making more $$ and losing more readers.

[ultraaman]

With the increased price point, Marvel will always outsell DC when it comes to dollars. In fact, DC would have to increase sales on all its $2.99 books by more than 15% just to break even in overall dollars (based on the graph we have here).

As for units sold, I think the chart shows something interesting. DC is turning out top tier books that people want but their mid-line books are not keeping their audiences. That is a problem. Didiot and Co. need to put more emphasis on getting and keeping GOOD creative teams of those books or the numbers will continue to fall. Since Marvel continues to have three sets of core titles (X-men, Avengers, everything else) they can package them like three different imprints. Marvel knows how to do events and those events sell not only core books but also the tie-in mini-series that spawn them.

As a side note, there is a negligible difference in total number of books caused by the few books that ship more than once a month.