Showing posts 36 - 40 of 47 matching: sales
Friday, September 17, 2010
Yesterday, we looked at Booster Gold sales. Today we'll take a peek at Justice League: Generation Lost.
It's kind of a shame to think that sales have been falling over time for this title, as that's in inverse proportion to the quality of the issues. But as I said yesterday, that's largely to be expected as natural reader attrition. Given the fact that sales trends seem to be pretty constant over time and over series, it seems pretty obvious that we can probably expect the same continued, gently declining performance from JL:GL over the remaining 2/3 of the series.
I'd venture a rough guess that the series is going to end up selling at about 30,000 copies for the final few issues, probably with a spike at the end as it ties into Brightest Day. (That spike at the end was pretty significant for 52 as it re-launched the multiverse. No telling what could happen if there's a similar reveal at the end of this series such as, say, the resurrection of Ted Kord.)
| | Tags: graph sales
Justin Garrett Blum posted on Sep. 17, 2010 at 6:51 PM
I think the collector mentality that was so aggressively cultivated in the 90s probably contributes somewhat to trend graphs like this one. Seems as though people don't want to be bothered purchasing a book unless there's some significance to it, like it's a first issue or there's a big reveal. <br />I could be overestimating that mentality, but it would be interesting, for example, to compare a graph of Booster Gold volume 1 sales to volume 2 sales.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 17, 2010 at 7:08 PM
Interesting, yes, but impossible since DC has never released sales numbers for series 1 (at least so far as I know).
Certainly there's nothing new about the tendency for new readers to flock en masse to new #1 issues. Before the 1990s, where comics were marketed as "collectibles," readers picked up #1 issues to see if they were interested in the new story inside. The practice of introducing new features in an anthology (like SHOWCASE) was dead by the end of the 1970s in favor of releasing new titles that could be numbered starting at #1 in order to boost sales. Even though I don't have real numbers to back it up (only anecdotal evidence provided from reading Dan Jurgens' comments in the Gold Exchange letter column), I'm sure that BOOSTER GOLD v1 #1 sold much better than the rest of the series with a declining readership over time.
Justin Garrett Blum posted on Sep. 17, 2010 at 7:42 PM
Well, listen, I'm not going to say that I've never purchased a No. 1 as a try-out, because I have. I understand why first issues sell better than every other successive issue. It's just my sense, however, that since the 90s, readers tend to jump ship earlier--like, if there's not something universe altering going on within the story, it has to be sacrificed. DC in particular has probably fed this trend in recent years with their millions of events. I really wouldn't mind at all a little stability within the mainstream DCU to allow books like Booster Gold to hold onto more of its readership.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 17, 2010 at 9:17 PM
You have a good point in that readers are actually encouraged by the major publishers to "jump ship earlier." "Sacrificed" is a great word for it. "Stability" doesn't increase sales. DC's mania for events is directly du to their ability to drive up sales. (The data is definitive: events increase sales very significantly, something the publishers learned in the 1980s). There are a limited (and shrinking) market of comic book buyers, and as the publishers need to earn revenue, they keep trying to earn our attention with new series and events. There is only so much time/money to go around, and the ongoings are going to be the titles that suffer. This trend will no doubt continue until either events no longer attract increased sales or comic books become extinct. I think the best that we can hope for is a Booster Gold relaunch every few years. (Honestly, as much as I hate it, it has worked for Marvel.)
Harry posted on Sep. 17, 2010 at 10:55 PM
As far as limited series of this nature, those are good numbers with minimal attrition. The slope looks worse b/c of the y-axis scale. I would be satisfied with a final number over 30k.
tiggerpete posted on Sep. 18, 2010 at 8:03 AM
I will say this, Generation Lost is one of my favorite series out there right now, and right up with DC Legacies (awesome book, and my theory is since the last issue covered Crisis, the next one may just have a JLI appearance) one of my favorite limited series as well.
eyz posted on Sep. 20, 2010 at 7:43 AM
it's kinda sad :/<br />Well, it is a pretty competitive market!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Don't panic:
It would appear that after a brief up-tick of curiosity seekers interested in Giffen's & DeMatteis' take on Booster Gold starting with issue 32, the series has resumed it's steady reader attrition. This shouldn't necessarily be considered a bad thing, however, as reader attrition is a normal cycle for comic books as readers move on to newer things. Note that the slope of decline is nearly the same pre- and post-G/D. Since sales got a boost for G/D's arrival, this means that the series sales numbers are ahead of where we should expect them to be at this point if Jurgens hadn't left the book. (Nothing against Jurgens. As I said, this is pretty natural.) But lest this graph fool you, let's change scale a bit and take a look at sales over the past year:
When you look at it that way, the line looks much better, yes? Sure, sales have been declining relatively steadily, but not as bad as the the steep slope of the first graph would have you believe. The aberration driving the change in scale is of course the Blackest Night DC ring promotion. So, as I said, don't panic.
(FYI: The reason that these charts look different from past charts is because these charts have been created dynamically against the Boosterrific.com database. I wrote this script for better information processing, but haven't figured a good way to include it dynamically on the site just yet.)
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ncllcn posted on Sep. 16, 2010 at 10:26 PM
I wonder what the impact of JL:GL has had on booster gold sales. I would think that some booster fans may be reading that instead. I'm not concerned though, yet, DC seems to be supporting booster pretty strong these days.
Superman posted on Sep. 18, 2010 at 8:36 AM
Cancellation, begone.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Steady as she goes: Booster Gold sales have remained essentially level for four months as the fan baseline appears to have been established at about 20K readers. (I've included the top selling issues for each month in the graph as a sales comparison between event sales and ongoing series sales. Just because.) I trust that the recent brouhaha regarding the art in Booster Gold #34 isn't enough to upset the delicate balance of this oscillation, right?
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Superman posted on Jul. 16, 2010 at 10:33 AM
It will take more than out-of-place art style to pry Booster Gold from my cold, implacable fan-boy hands...
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Good news, everybody! The arrival of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis have given Booster Gold a small but noticeable sales bump. Of course sales for the first two issues of Justice League:Generation Lost have also been very good, giving Booster Gold fans a real reason to smile early this summer.
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TGB posted on Jul. 1, 2010 at 4:47 PM
This is positive. Hopefully it will stick, especially as JL:GL exposes Booster. It was his appearance at the beginning of 52 (which I read to get back in to comics) that got me in to looking for more of him, and I'd imagine that this will happen for others, too.<br />Where do you get this information, out of curiosity...? Do you have numbers for JL:GL?
TGB posted on Jul. 1, 2010 at 5:04 PM
Ah, should've looked at the source at the top before I asked those last questions. Der.
Harry posted on Jul. 2, 2010 at 9:25 AM
It is a relief to see BG over the 20K mark again. With JL:GL over 40K and the Time Master's series starting up, you have got to think sales will remain steady over the next year. I wish Giffen runs didn't always start out so slow. It is hard to get people to jump on three to five issues in.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Jul. 2, 2010 at 2:48 PM
@Harry: JLGL #1 sold 50,784; #2 sold 44,711. I'm sure the alt cover variants are keeping sales artificially high, so I look forward to seeing where these numbers settle in over the long haul. (That's why I haven't started tracking them yet. I'm looking for sales number for at least 4 issues before I start tracking trends.)
@TGB: I think you found it, but the link to the numbers above and more are here: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/17679.html.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Recent sales of Booster Gold have continued their downward trend from before the hiccup of Blackest Night, demonstrating unequivocally that DC's zombie-fest has provided no long-term boost in readers for Booster. Note that these numbers are linear with the continued downward trend in sales for Booster Gold and are not indicative of any significant change in readership habits due to the planned departure of Dan Jurgens. (The truth of the previous statement will be revealed in coming months, once sales figures are released for the first few Giffen and DeMatteis issues.)
Fortunately, recent history also suggests that DC's average cancellation threshold (the line in red above) is low enough and flexible enough that the series will last at least another 12 months, benefiting from the full length of the Generation Lost maxi-series. And despite Booster's falling sales numbers, DC clearly has a lot of faith in the character to feature him in at least 3 series this summer. Should Generation Lost or Time Masters: Vanishing Point perform well, there could still be a be a sales boon for Booster Gold which would postpone the executioner's axe. Only time will tell.
| | Tags: graph sales
Harry posted on Apr. 16, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Mmmmmmm..... graphs.
Harry posted on Apr. 16, 2010 at 4:44 PM
But seriously, while I wish the sales would stabilize, 20K at this stage is not bad for this title in this market. DC would be hard pressed to cancel the title with Gen Lost and Time Master's going. I think we are well on track to get to issue 50, and that would be a solid run for Booster. Does anyone see a reasonable senario that takes BG much beyond that mark?
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Apr. 16, 2010 at 8:06 PM
DC could always try to up the profile of the book by putting some HUGE names on it (Jim Lee, Grant Morrison), but they'd be more likely to relaunch it with a new title or number 1 issue and a retooled direction. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, however, because if rates of readership decline remain the same, sales won't dip below the cancellation threshold until issue 58, which counting issues 0 and 1,000,00, will be the 60th issue of the series. That's pretty respectable in today's market for, let's face it, a second-tier character with limited market appeal. Heck, more famous names like Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and the Spectre have a hard time stringing that many issues together in all their many series. It'll have been a good run when it inevitably comes to an end.
tiggerpete posted on Apr. 17, 2010 at 4:02 AM
I would think the Generation Lost might boost readers, and if the economy would turn around, people might be more inclined to add titles to their pull list rather than cutting them, that would help too, besides, my other favorite series (Green Arrow) just got restarted, but then again it also reflects a major shift in the status quo (it had just hit 32 too, the last series hit 75, the one before was in the 120's, if trends matter, than this one will be lucky to make it 2 years) so count your blessings that Booster seems to have a nice place in the market and will still be around for the foreseeable future.
KMD posted on Apr. 21, 2010 at 9:53 PM
Sorry did not see this post till now-would have not had made post for 4/21 entry on Blackest Night had I seen this. What bother me is Booster is now out of the top 100. Not the best of signs
