Rebirth and June's Numbers

[SpideySavestheDay]

With June's numbers soon upon us, what will be DC's most surprising Rebirth title in terms of units sold. I think most would agree that Batman will be the top seller judging by the success of the New 52 run. But which of the other titles will scale Diamond's charts? My vote - Superman Rebirth. DC's choice to

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

"kill" New 52 Superman and return the pre Flash point version

will interest long time DC readers.

Which Rebirth title do you think retailers took the biggest chance on? Does everyone agrees Batman Rebirth will be the highest seller?

[MisterFerro]

We know from Ben Percy that Green Arrow Rebirth sold 90k plus.

Batman #1 sold 350k but I don't about Batman Rebirth.

[MisterFerro]

The Top 10 list has come out:

1) Civil War 2 #1 - $5.99

2) Batman #1 - $2.99

3) Batman Rebirth #1 - $2.99

4) Han Solo #1 - $3.99

5) Civil War 2 #2 - $4.99

6) DK 3: Master Race #5 - $5.99

7) DK Returns: The Last Crusade #1 - $6.99

8 ) Superman Rebirth #1 - $2.99

9) Wonder Woman #1 - $2.99

10) Superman #1 -$2.99

[RowdyFromScrubs]

The Top 10 list has come out:
1) Civil War 2 #1 - $5.99
2) Batman #1 - $2.99
3) Batman Rebirth #1 - $2.99
4) Han Solo #1 - $3.99
5) Civil War 2 #2 - $4.99
6) DK 3: Master Race #5 - $5.99
7) DK Returns: The Last Crusade #1 - $6.99
8 ) Superman Rebirth #1 - $2.99
9) Wonder Woman #1 - $2.99
10) Superman #1 -$2.99

I thought Superman & Wonder Woman would have been higher...that is going with the guess that DK3: Master Race #5 is going to be around 125K. The three shops in my area also had, what I guessing, is pretty big re-orders on Batman #1, just to get copies on shelf.

Under the assumption that: #2 on the list Batman #1 is ~350K & #5 DK3: Master Race #5 is ~125K... is Civil War2 dropping a quarter million copies from issue #1 to #2 (spot #1-to-#5)? ouch

[MisterFerro]

The top 100 comics are out.

11) Flash #1
12) GLs Rebirth #1
13) Tec #934
15) WW Rebirth #1
16) Tec #935
17) Flash Rebirth #1
18) GLs #1
19) GA Rebirth #1 -- Ben Percy said 90k plus units sold
24) Aquaman #1
25) Action #958
26) Action #957
29) JL #52
30) Titans Rebirth #1
32) JL #51
33) GA #1
35) Aquaman Rebirth #1
58) DC Universe Rebirth #1 2nd ptg ($5.99)

[MisterFerro]

I thought Superman & Wonder Woman would have been higher...that is going with the guess that DK3: Master Race #5 is going to be around 125K. The three shops in my area also had, what I guessing, is pretty big re-orders on Batman #1, just to get copies on shelf.

Under the assumption that: #2 on the list Batman #1 is ~350K & #5 DK3: Master Race #5 is ~125K... is Civil War2 dropping a quarter million copies from issue #1 to #2 (spot #1-to-#5)? ouch

The full numbers are out and it looks like Tom King was talking about Total sells which include sells after the FOC cut date.

But Civil War 2 #1 still sold 380k plus to the DM. #2 dropped over 230k units (61%) from #1.

[JohnMayo]

The full numbers are out and it looks like Tom King was talking about Total sells which include sells after the FOC cut date.

The Rebirth titles are returnable so Diamond reported them at a reduced rate, typically 80%. Add another 20% to the Batman #1 sales and you get right around the 350,000 units Tom King mentioned. DC was under reported by nearly 500,000 units of sales because of the Rebirth returnability. I go into this in my analysis and I'm sure Sam and I will discuss it on the podcast which we'll most likely record after I get home and recover from Comic-Con.

if you guys have questions for the episode, please post them in this thread or in the Mayo Report thread.

[MisterFerro]

The full numbers are out and it looks like Tom King was talking about Total sells which include sells after the FOC cut date.

The Rebirth titles are returnable so Diamond reported them at a reduced rate, typically 80%. Add another 20% to the Batman #1 sales and you get right around the 350,000 units Tom King mentioned. DC was under reported by nearly 500,000 units of sales because of the Rebirth returnability. I go into this in my analysis and I'm sure Sam and I will discuss it on the podcast which we'll most likely record after I get home and recover from Comic-Con.

if you guys have questions for the episode, please post them in this thread or in the Mayo Report thread.

20% really? That's actually bigger than I thought.

Thanks for the clarification on returnability.

[MichaelCastle]

I'm still shocked at how well Civil War II did. First two issues sold over 500,000 combined at a 4.99 price point. Looking at how well Rebirth has done I wonder if DC made a mistake offering return ability because being docked 20% of sales prevented them from topping the list this month. Also I wonder with Civil War II also being in the Collector Corps box if that counted towards the total and bumped up the sales plus there was a bunch of variants. Also since DC only offered cover A and cover B if they made a mistake not having a bunch of variants for the Rebirth issues to pump up sales as well(I know there were separate retailer variants but I don't think they count towards final sales). I think DC is looking at long haul focusing on good stories and building an audience rather than just topping the sales charts. I haven't had a chance to fully go over the list yet just some first impressions

[NiklasJ]

What is so surprising about Civil War II being high in sales? Its not like most marvel titles are tanking around 15k sales like many smaller DC properties were at before the rebirth. Only two issues in, stores hopefully ordered about what they felt they could sell, plus variants and boxes...

Its a nice book, especially first issue with flashy hard cover, good art, promises action (even if second issue was more talky) with many popular characters. Not too surprising that it sells well at start of the miniseries. Like an action movie most readers/viewers dont need oscar winning weird drama to enjoy a regular adventure comic.

To keep readers buying until issue #7 will be harder though, if we dont get a sense of direction in the upcoming issue...

[erickowabunga]

I'm still shocked at how well Civil War II did. First two issues sold over 500,000 combined at a 4.99 price point. Looking at how well Rebirth has done I wonder if DC made a mistake offering return ability because being docked 20% of sales prevented them from topping the list this month. Also I wonder with Civil War II also being in the Collector Corps box if that counted towards the total and bumped up the sales plus there was a bunch of variants. Also since DC only offered cover A and cover B if they made a mistake not having a bunch of variants for the Rebirth issues to pump up sales as well(I know there were separate retailer variants but I don't think they count towards final sales). I think DC is looking at long haul focusing on good stories and building an audience rather than just topping the sales charts. I haven't had a chance to fully go over the list yet just some first impressions

Interesting thoughts. As a retailer, based on what I see, DC is doing it more right than wrong. Adding lots of variants drives a very short term game. It burns a lot of people out, and disenfranchises many from being able to purchase the variants (Over the last two years our Marvel subs list has been shrinking - lots of people upset about having to chase a variant, or more importantly constant renumbering). DC was not docked any percentages for Rebirth, as it was not a returnable title. As such, you would be hard pressed to find a shop that has any first prints on the shelf, and more than likely you will find stores with only the third in busier locations. I would venture to guess that the reason the Rebirth number is so low is that the solicitation information about it came out late into the previews cycle. Most shops had to make a gut decision, and based off of Convergence, not many people had a lot of faith.

What would be a good comparison would be after Civil War II finishes, to look at reorder activity for both Rebirth and Civil War II #1. Then compare which sold more copies. Should Rebirth catch up to, or surpass Civil War, I would surmise that MORE copies of Rebirth made their way into peoples hands to be read, than Civil War II #1 - which is a better long term game for DC.

[MichaelCastle]

My question is this a trend we will see the next few months with all the DC rebirth titles being returnable that 20% of their sales numbers will be docked ? Obviously DC wanted to get back into the good graces of the retailers with Convergence being so awful but I wonder since the Rebirth titles being returnable that will allow Marvel to top the sales charts. Did you guys over order Rebirth titles because of returnable aspect or keep same as before? I love that DC seems to have jettisoned the whole 1:10, 1:25, 1:50 chase variant aspect of the line and focused on the stories and building a great line wide excitement about their titles. My LCS owner told me about the absolute craziness ordering his Marvel titles so much so it made my head hurt lol. Also I can't wait for you next segment on Comics for Fun and Profit maybe another crossover episode? Keep up the great insight!

[erickowabunga]

My question is this a trend we will see the next few months with all the DC rebirth titles being returnable that 20% of their sales numbers will be docked ? Obviously DC wanted to get back into the good graces of the retailers with Convergence being so awful but I wonder since the Rebirth titles being returnable that will allow Marvel to top the sales charts. Did you guys over order Rebirth titles because of returnable aspect or keep same as before? I love that DC seems to have jettisoned the whole 1:10, 1:25, 1:50 chase variant aspect of the line and focused on the stories and building a great line wide excitement about their titles. My LCS owner told me about the absolute craziness ordering his Marvel titles so much so it made my head hurt lol. Also I can't wait for you next segment on Comics for Fun and Profit maybe another crossover episode? Keep up the great insight!

Hey Michael - Great questions, and thanks for the kind words. Credit goes to Drew and Kyle for the crossover podcast, it was their idea!

For the Rebirth questions above - As a retailer, I don't really care who is at the top of the sales charts, as long as what is up there is quality. Marvel vs DC isn't something that I care about. I can say that right now there is more shop buzz around the DC line than anything else, and that is driving the desire for people to buy the issues. We did not over order, but we did not stay constant in our ordering - if that makes any sense. James is in our store 5-6 days per week, and no one knows our customers and their buying habits better. As a team, we talk about the books in Previews, and we make our decisions based on his knowledge, my knowledge of the online discussion, knowledge of creators and creative teams, etc. We could not have ordered better than we did. After 2 weeks we are averaging 2-5 copies of each title (standard + variant cover) on the shelf. As we get farther along, we will start to weed out which titles we want to be a +1 or a 0 for what carries to our recent shelf. When you are talking about ordering books from 5-10 per month and going to 50 per month with a non-sell through of 2-5 books after 2 weeks, that's a home run in a 2 month preview order cycle industry to me.

Related to retainability, we did not go crazy, as noted above, but we also were willing to think a bit less and order those 5-10 extra copies, knowing we could return them if we needed to.

Yes, we share the pain that your LCS owner has with regard to Marvel. We are slowly getting to a point that we are only looking at variants that we know we meet the requirements for. We really don't need to waste the time to calculate 125% of our order of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 3 for a Deadpool issue (random fictitious example).

As for the crossover podcast - it was a blast, and I think you could hear some of the differences of book spec vs retail, but ultimately it was all about what we love. If you had to divide us, it's pretty obvious:

James and Drew - Crossed
Kyle and Eric - Dick Grayson/Nightwing

[drew]

As for the crossover podcast - it was a blast, and I think you could hear some of the differences of book spec vs retail, but ultimately it was all about what we love. If you had to divide us, it's pretty obvious:

James and Drew - Crossed
Kyle and Eric - Dick Grayson/Nightwing

Hahaha it's a subtle difference