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Secret Wars Beats Dark Knight III #2 In December – But DC Dramatically Recovers Marketshare From Marvel

Of late, DC Comics marketshare has been dropping away, down past the 30% mark and getting perilously close to the 20% mark. In December, that turned around somewhat. Marvel is still be far the strongest publisher in the direct market, but DC Comics traditionally does a lot better in the Christmas market, able to monetise its back catalogue, trades, hardcovers and collections far better than Marvel is able to.

Secret Wars #8 topped the list, over Dark Knight III #2, both beating out Star Wars – though the franchise places four titles in the top ten thanks to the Annual issues. The launch of Batman/TMNT did rather well, Marvel has a strong launch for Guardians Of The Infinity as DC did with Harley's Little Black Book – which beat both the Star Wars annuals.

In October, Marvel Comics increased their share of revenue in the comic book direct market from 32.67% to 43.65% and their sale of number of comics sold increase from 38.12% to 48.26%.While DC Comics saw their marketshare fall from 26.01% to 21.85% and 26.32% down to 22.92%.

In November, Marvel's dollar share was down by a fraction to 43.2% and sales share down a similar fraction to 47.65%. DC's marketshare rose to 26.35% dollar share and a 26.09% sales share.

And now in December, DC continues that upward trend and Marvel slips considerably. Marvel has 37.09% dollar share and a 41.87% sales share, a drop of six points for each.

While DC Comics, who put on around five points last month, puts on over three points again, with a 29.32% dollar share and a 29.93% sales share.

And those missing three points? Some went to Image Comics with a 10.29% dollar share and a 10.65% unit share. And IDW got a point or so, with a 5.31% dollar share and a 4.10% unit share.

Image's top title was The Walking Dead #149 at #26, Dark Horse Comics had Fight Club 2 #8 at top #81, IDW had Back to the Future #3 at #106 and Oni Press had Invader Zim #5 at #86.

Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin's The Private Eye Deluxe Edition from Image was the best-selling graphic novel of December but Harley Quinn's trades did bloody well too and the Black Mask collection of We Can Never Go Home at number 6 for the month,

And IDW's Locke & Key: Shades of Terror Coloring Book,was the best selling non-comics book of the month. Expect this to be the story of 2016….

But as for the whole of 2015? Sales are up on 2014… 7.17% in sales overall, and 9% in comics alone, when it was just a 4% increase from 2014 over 2013.

Which means even though DC's marketshare has dropped, they are still bringing in more money in 2015 than they did in 2014….

UPDATE: Ulp, no it's not. My head hangs in shame. It's just not quite as bad of a drop….

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

RETAIL MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 37.09%
DC ENTERTAINMENT 29.32%
IMAGE COMICS 10.29%
IDW PUBLISHING 5.31%
DARK HORSE COMICS 3.05%
BOOM! STUDIOS 1.91%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 1.63%
TITAN COMICS 1.38%
ONI PRESS 0.89%
VIZ MEDIA 0.82%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 8.31%
UNIT MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 41.87%
DC ENTERTAINMENT 29.93%
IMAGE COMICS 10.65%
IDW PUBLISHING 4.10%
DARK HORSE COMICS 2.43%
BOOM! STUDIOS 1.71%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 1.55%
TITAN COMICS 1.21%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC 0.80%
ONI PRESS 0.74%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 5.02%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER COMICS SHIPPED GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED MAGAZINES SHIPPED TOTAL SHIPPED
DC ENTERTAINMENT 98 36 1 135
MARVEL COMICS 81 27 0 108
IMAGE COMICS 77 16 0 93
IDW PUBLISHING 50 29 0 79
DARK HORSE COMICS 32 17 0 49
BOOM ENTERTAINMENT 31 9 0 40
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 23 9 0 32
TITAN COMICS 17 6 4 27
VIZ MEDIA 0 17 0 17
ONI PRESS INC. 8 4 0 12
OTHER NON-TOP 10 139 138 41 318

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

  DOLLARS UNITS
DECEMBER 2015 VS. NOVEMBER 2015
COMICS -2.14% 0.68%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 12.73% 7.36%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 1.53% 1.09%
DECEMBER 2015 VS. DECEMBER 2014
COMICS 25.05% 18.63%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 14.12% 7.03%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 21.85% 17.80%
YEAR 2015 VS. YEAR 2014
COMICS 8.99% 6.54%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 3.14% 3.35%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 7.17% 6.28%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 SECRET WARS #8 $3.99 MAR
2 DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #2 $5.99 DC
3 STAR WARS #13 $3.99 MAR
4 BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #1 $3.99 DC
5 BATMAN #47 $3.99 DC
6 GUARDIANS OF INFINITY #1 $4.99 MAR
7 DARTH VADER #14 $3.99 MAR
8 HARLEY'S LITTLE BLACK BOOK #1 $4.99 DC
9 STAR WARS ANNUAL #1 $4.99 MAR
10 DARTH VADER ANNUAL #1 $4.99 MAR

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 THE PRIVATE EYE DELUXE EDITION HC (MR) $49.99 IMA
2 HARLEY QUINN VOLUME 2: POWER OUTAGE TP $16.99 DC
3 AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VOLUME 11: SMOKE & SHADOW PART 2 TP $10.99 DAR
4 BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN TP $9.99 DC
5 SAGA VOLUME 5 TP (MR) $14.99 IMA
6 WE CAN NEVER GO HOME TP (MR) $9.99 BLA
7 HARLEY QUINN VOLUME 3: KISS KISS BANG STAB HC $24.99 DC
8 STAR WARS: DARTH VADER VOLUME 1: VADER TP $19.99 MAR
9 CIVIL WAR TP $24.99 MAR
10 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS TP $17.99 MAR

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 LOCKE & KEY: SHADES OF TERROR COLORING BOOK $9.99 IDW
2 STAR WARS ARTIFACT EDITION HC $75.00 IDW
3 GRIMM FAIRY TALES: ADULT COLORING BOOK $12.99 ZEN
4 THE ART OF FALLOUT 4 HC $49.99 DAR
5 THE LITTLE BOOK OF BATMAN FLEXICOVER (MR) $9.99 TAS
6 WONDER WOMAN: TIARA BRACELET & BOOK KIT $9.95 RUN
7 THE LITTLE BOOK OF WONDER WOMAN FLEXICOVER $9.99 TAS
8 THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOLUME 102 SC $14.95 SAN
9 THE LITTLE BOOK OF SUPERMAN FLEXICOVER $9.99 TAS
10 LEGEND OF ZELDA: HYRULE HISTORIA HC $34.99 DAR

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR
1 HALO: MJOLNIR MARK V & MARK VI DELUXE ARTFX+ STATUE 2-PACK KOT
2 DC COMICS: THE BOMBSHELLS JOKER & HARLEY QUINN STATUE DC
3 ALEX ROSS JUSTICE LEAGUE ACTION FIGURE 6-PACK DC
4 DC COMICS: THE NEW 52: JUSTICE LEAGUE ACTION FIGURE 7-PACK DC
5 DC COMICS: BATGIRL STATUE DC
6 BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES: MASK OF THE PHANTASM ACTION FIGURE 2-PACK DC
7 DC COMICS COVER GIRLS: CATWOMAN STATUE DC
8 DC ICONS: GREEN LANTERN: HAL JORDAN DARK DAYS DELUXE FIGURE DC
9 DC ICONS: THE FLASH CHAIN LIGHTNING ACTION FIGURE DC
10 MARVEL SELECT: DR. STRANGE ACTION FIGURE DST

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR
1 MOUSE GUARD ROLEPLAYING GAME BOXED SET (2ND EDITION) BOO
2 BACK TO THE FUTURE MONOPOLY DST
3 MONOPOLY: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION USA
4 SUPERFIGHT ORANGE DECK IMA
5 SUPERFIGHT RED DECK IMA
6 SUPERFIGHT BLUE DECK IMA
7 SUPERFIGHT PURPLE DECK IMA
8 SUPERFIGHT GREEN DECK IMA
9 JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK MONOPOLY DST
10 DC HEROCLIX BRAINIAC SKULL SHIP NEC

 

d1

Dollar Market Share – December 2015

d2

Unit Market Share – December 2015


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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