Yesterday, I mentioned that DC was selling out of all of their new releases. I think that bears a little more investigation, especially in the context of whether DC is getting what they want out of this reboot.

Yes, the comics are selling well. Phenomenally well. If each of the new 52 has sold out at a print run averaging 50,000 (a very conservative estimate: Justice League reportedly sold over 170,000 copies alone, but some of the later, more esoteric titles no doubt received substantially smaller orders). All but Justice League are $2.99 each, so we'll run with the $2.99 price point and figure that's $2.99 * (50,000 x 52) = $7,774,000 gross profit for the month on DCnU North American first prints alone. (DC takes in somewhat less -- probably considerably less -- than half of that number in net profit.) That seems pretty good. But is it?

In July, DC's gross sales came to about $6,742,665. The conservative estimate therefore represents a 15% increase in sales. More importantly, back when this reboot was announced in the month of April, DC grossed only $5,814,418, making this sales bump a comparative 33% increase in sales! If this can be sustained, the reboot was totally worth it to DC Comics.

Sustainability is now the big question, though, isn't it? How many of these issues being sold are to new readers and how many are being sold to old readers who have decided to pick up a few extra comics this month to see what changes are in store for their favored characters? Will these "new" readers stick around for the long haul? How well is the new "day and date" initiative going with digital sales? Or does this all represent merely a brief bump in sales as always accompanies a new slate of number one issues?

Time will tell; all we can do at this point is speculate. Real sales figures will come out sometime in the next three weeks, and no doubt everyone will be relatively happy with what they reveal. In the meantime we have to be content knowing that whether or not this reboot is the answer that DC is seeking to combat a shrinking market, at least it is successful in the short term.

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