The New 27 – DC Marketshare Slips In March 2013

[frigidmagi]

bleedingcool

In February, DC Comics saw one of their marketshare figures fall below the psychologically important 30% mark. In March they have fallen further, both now under 30%. DC have a 27.09% share of revenue and 29.88% share of the number of comics sold in the North American direct market. The last time this happened with both figures was in June 2009.

While this is now a lower marketshare than before the news of the New 52 broke and DC began to put on marketshare in 2011, it is worth noting that the overall size of the market has grown since then, so it still represents a net rise. However, it is quite a fall since October 2011, the second month of the relaunch, when they had over 50% marketshare.

Marvel have seen their dollar marketshare rise from a static 34.8% of the last two months to 39.96%, putting on five points. And their share of comics sold, after falling from 40.23% to 38.46% has now leapt over five points to 43.78%.

And while we only have the Top Ten official results so far, I understand that Brian Bendis alone had more books placed in the Top Twenty this month than DC manage – 7 Bendis to 6 DC. In the top ten, Marvel dominate with Guardians Of The Galaxy #1 taking the top spot, beating even the event book Age Of Ultron #1. There’s a strong showing for the new Wolverine book by Cornell and Davis as well, but the two highest non-debut month titles are both from DC. Which is something. DC also do better with the best selling graphic novels, taking the top two spots, though there’s also an impressive collection debut for Hawkeye.

But what are DC to do about marketshare? Well, you remember the rumour I ran about DC cancelling 16 monthly books to make way for four new weekly titles? Well, what if they only cancelled four books? That would technically still give them the New 52, but with a totally of 62 books shipping each month. And if they were all big name books, might that see an uplift of DC marketshare come October?

Image have kept a strong position, bedding in at 8% marketshare. But for once there is only one Walking Dead collection in the Top Ten.

DC is still in a strong second place, as 29% is over 3 times as much as 8% but still... This is becoming a trend.

[RogueIce]

I was hoping it was about them cancelling a shitload of titles. Thanks for getting my hopes up for nothing.

Anyway maybe the failing numbers will convince them their stupid-as-shit idea of MEGA REBOOT FTW LOLOLOLOL was a bad idea? Or maybe I'm just bitter we'll never see Action Comics #1000 because those asshats needed a publicity stunt.

[Batman]

They'd have to cancel the New 52 idiocy in its entirety if they realized that, and when was the last time DC did anything even remotely that smart?

[RogueIce]

Well they probably had to agree in some form when Batman: The Animated Series was launched...

[Batman]

I didn't say DC never did anything that smart, I asked when was the last time they did. I still maintain Crisis on Infinite Earths was one of the smartest things DC ever did WRT the comics.
As for animation there may have been legal reasons why they couldn't do anything about it, though as that was back in the days when DC didn't completely suck I choose to believe they actually recognized how awesome the Timmverse was going to be.

[Josh]

Crisis itself was pretty bitchin', it was the followup that screwed the pooch. Also, Crisis might have been better served by being a bit shorter, say eight or ten issues over twelve.

Still, the buildup was something else. In those pre-internet days, everyone lived on small little islands and could only discuss this stuff with their local associates. They had a solid year of the Monitor showing up in all the main series, helping out various villains and getting the readership wound up about WHO IS THAT MYSTERY MAN?

Very effective, even if the payoff on the Monitor himself was kind of... anticlimatic.