There are decades of comics history where industry number-crunchers only counted how many issues of Superman and Captain America newsstands ordered, leaving historians with only hard sales numbers from 1997 onward. Its not a big anniversary issue, its not an anthology, and it arrived with a modest four variant covers. But the first comic, the one that truly started it all was Marvel Comics No. The Adventures of Tintin. From superheroes, to classic horror monsters, to Star Wars. The global market for print comic books was worth $7.79B in 2022, up from $7.14B in 2021. In 1956 rival company DC Comics ushered in the so-called Silver Age of comics by reintroducing superhero titles with significant commercial success. Once again, the official Marvel series index isnt very useful. Its headquarters are in New York City. The company wouldnt be known as Marvel Comics until much later, but we can safely say this is the start of the Marvel Universe. They have long been a leading name in the industry and a top rival of DC. As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail. Summer 2021 had the best comic book sales in five years. Production costs and global box office revenue of selected Marvel Comics movies from 2002 to 2022 (in million U.S . Over 90% of all US comic sales belong to Comichron and Diamond Comics. Dragon Ball. We may earn a commission from It's possible publishers have been able to focus their marketing more tightly, leading to increasing demand for the smaller number of books; ironically, this seems to have created openings for independent publishers, whose books have rarely made it into the top performers but are nonetheless expanding their output successfully. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Register in seconds and access exclusive features. They have long been a leading name in the industry and a top rival of DC. Deyan has been fascinated by technology his whole life. Perelman, Icahn argued, Was like a plumber you loan money to get him started in business; then he comes in, wrecks your house, then tells you he wants the house for nothing.. As a book telling canonical stories in the middle of the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars #1 hit that sweet spot of appealing to fans nostalgic for the old expanded universe and promising to show readers something new. Shortly after the deal with Merill Lynch went through, Marvel announced that Iron Man would be its first independent production. Marvel Spotlight (1971 - 1981) Our research owes a lot to Comichrons detailed compilations of the categories of best-selling comics; the sites post about the difficulties of naming the best-selling comics ever is good and edifying reading. So believe me when I tell you there are a lot of comics and characters. The comic book industry has seen many changes in recent years, largely due to the influence of comic book movies. Manga industry statistics show that Marvel and DC are less prevalent in Japan, but they still prevail in overall comic book sales. Matters were made even worse by the coronavirus pandemic, which essentially shut the industry down for months and led to many retailers struggling financially. The problem is, were not in 2009 anymore. Over 90% of all US comic sales belong to Comichron and Diamond Comics. The production costs of "Avengers: Endgame" (2019), "The Avengers" (2012), and "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015) amounted to 356 million, 220 million, and 250 million U.S. dollars, respectively,. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/369073/best-selling-comic-books-north-america/, Comics with the highest estimated number of shipments to comic book stores in North America in April 2022, Available to download in PNG, PDF, XLS format, Highest-grossing movie franchises and series in the U.S. & Canada 2022, Top opening weekends at the box office in the U.S. & Canada 2022, The Iron Man series: domestic and global box office revenue 2018, Bestselling video titles in the U.S. 2022, Bestselling Blu-rays in the U.S. 2020, by consumer spending, Best-selling American single-issue comic books of all time in the U.S. 2019, Comic sales to stores in North America 2022, Best-sellers: comic books in North America 2021, Sales of graphic novels to comic stores in North America 2022, Best-selling graphic novels in North America 2021, Comic publisher: store market share in the U.S. 2022, Comic publisher: store market share in the U.S. 2019, Fans of Marvel Comics in the U.S. 2019, by age group, Marvel vs. DC preference 2018, by media type, Marvel Studios movie viewership in the U.S. 2018, Most recognizable superheroes in the U.S. 2019, Reasons for watching Avengers: Endgame in the U.S. 2019, Familiarity with Marvel's 'Avengers' movies in the U.S. 2019, by age group, Favorability of Marvel superheroes in the U.S. 2018, Favorite characters created by Stan Lee U.S. 2018, Academy Awards nominations in 2023, by film, Budget of "Best Picture" nominees at the Academy Awards 2021, Favorite comic book character in France 2016, Captain America favorability in the U.S. 2018, Preference between Batman and Robin in the U.S. 2017, Annual attendance at Barcelona International Comic Fair 2014-2019, Ranking of mangas' print runs in the European francophone market by copies sold 2016, Incredible Hulk favorability in the U.S. 2018, Publications of Franco-Belgian comic books in the francophone market 2000-2016, Number of publications of comic books in the francophone market 2010-2016, by type, Most popular magazines and comic books among children and teens in Germany 2019, Black Panther favorability in the U.S. 2018, Leading manga titles in Japan in 2014, by number of copies published, Comics with the highest estimated number of shipments to comic book stores in North America in April 2022 (in 1,000 units), Find your information in our database containing over 20,000 reports. The comic book industry looks a lot healthier right now. Its also the first issue of an ongoing series making it a potential seller on the collectibles market. And today, youll be lucky to get a dollar for your copy of the best selling American single-issue comic book of all time or at least, the best selling American single-issue comic book of all time that we have hard data on. Marvel Comics, American media and entertainment company that was widely regarded as one of the big two publishers in the comic industry. The details of the deal sounded risky: Marvel was essentially offering up the jewels of its business characters like Thor and Captain America as collateral. Summer 2021 had the best comic book sales in five years. Marvel Comics depended on the Spider-Man franchise, X-Men Franchise, and Daredevil franchise. [9 Easy Methods], BeenVerified Opt Out Guide [7 Easy Steps], How To See How Many Friends You Have On Snapchat? Retailers flooded the market with an estimated 8,186,500 copies of X-Men #1 to meet demand, and collectors snapped them up and preserved them. Timely changed its name to Atlas Comics in 1951 and became Marvel Comics in the early 1960s, recalling the title it had often used. The battle, when it finally ended in December 1998, had a strange outcome which few could have predicted: after a lengthy court case, ToyBiz and Marvel Entertainment Group were finally merged, but Perelman and his nemesis Icahn were both ousted in the process. Still, having struggled through 2020 publishers are keen to draw readers back to comic book shops. DC and Marvel are constantly battling for the top spot, but both outstrip their smaller competitors by a long way. Oops. It was the third-highest-selling comic of 1992, and the seventh comic, Spawn #1, sold 1.7 million copies. According to Diamond, Marvel dominated the market share for periodicals with a 44.72%-30.74% lead over DC in unit share and a 40.2% to 29.29% lead in dollar share. Over 530 thousand issues later, Amazing Spider-Man #853 made this list. This has had a knock-on effect on sales. With the release of Fantastic Four no. Discover how superheroes took over pop culture. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! For Marvel, its darkest hour came in the winter of 1996. 1 (cover dated October 1939), which featured several superhero characters, most notably the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. Whats interesting is that they do count different iterations of their beloved heroes. The precursor to Marvel Comics was founded in 1939 by pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman. Which frankly seems too little for the 82 years Marvel has published comics. Nevertheless, Merrill Lynch gave Marvel access to a huge reservoir of cash: $525 million over seven years, which it could use to spend on 10 movies with budgets ranging from $45m to $180m. The comic book world is not a particularly inclusive industry, and its customers are primarily from a white background. While work on Iron Man began, Marvel made another important acquisition one as important to its future success, perhaps, as the recovery of some of its most famous superheroes. If we assume all series have about six issues (which isnt true, because some can have three while others can have 50 depending on their run) it would total 29,418 comics. and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive which made our list of the best Batman comics ever made and ended with a doozy of a cliffhanger. The 10 Cent Adventures promotional price point (that is, 10 red pennies) probably had more to do with it. Some in the industry went further, and argued that Perelmans tactics had endangered the entire industry: [Perelman] reasoned, quite correctly, that if he raised prices and output, that hardcore Marvel fans would devote a larger and larger portion of their disposable income toward buying comics,wroteChuck Rozanski, CEO of Mile High Comics. are in no way influenced by the companies mentioned. 210. Ill get to the number of characters and heroes, but to know just how big the Marvel Comics universe is, we need to look at the history of Marvel. However, you find more and more titles with female characters and writers released, so this demographic is likely to change. Author of. Digital comics sales have been steadily increasing as more platforms develop and more publishers create online versions of their comics. It kind of depends on what you count as a character. There are villains and heroes, humans and mutants, among many others. For years, Marvel had struggled to get its properties onto the big screen: the rights to Spider-Man were stuck in a tangled web which wouldnt be unpicked until the late 90s, while 1986s Howard The Duck was a critical and financial disaster. March 21, 2022. If you are an admin, please authenticate by logging in again. Just about every great comic book story has a darkest hour moment: a point in the tale where all seems lost. But youre selling bubbles and tulips, and one day the bubble will burst, and the tulips will rot in the warehouse.. Most comic book buyers are white men. That story featured the cosmic entity the Beyonder zapping all of Marvels most popular heroes and villains to an alien planet where he forced them to fight to the death. Collectors and fans shell out millions of dollars every year to buy and trade the latest issues and collections. In February 2017, Marvel published only two ongoing superhero series that sold above 40,000 single issues: "The Amazing Spider-Man" (61,953) and "The Mighty Thor" (40,175). Comic book sales statistics reflect a global market value of 7.14 billion dollars. Although they dont explain which index this is, Im assuming it refers to the 2009 edition of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe, which does state in its introduction that they have that number of issues. 2015s Secret Wars was a follow up to one of the earliest and most notorious Marvel Comics crossovers of all time, 1984s Secret Wars. Ultimate Spider-Man #1 is something of an odd one out. Its success spawned a wave of television programs, beginning with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Stories also began to deal with social issues such as pollution, race relations, and drug abuse. The interesting question is whether the reduced slate has actually contributed to the overall strength of summer 2021. This growth trend expects to continue, although there was some disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the early 90s, Marvel was buoyed by the success of Spider-Man and X-Men, which were selling in huge numbers. The pickings for Marvel, however, were slim: Blade made $70 million at the box office, but the reward for Marvel, according to a Slate article, was a measly $25,000. (201320) on ABC and continuing with Daredevil (201518), Jessica Jones (201519), and Luke Cage (201618), a string of critically lauded series that appeared on Netflix. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Black Panther has become not only another $1 billion plus success story, but one of the highest grossing films of all time. A paid subscription is required for full access. However, the industry is slowly becoming more inclusive, with more titles aimed at different social groups. If collectors wanted to get hold of all five cards, they you guessed it had to buy multiple copies of the same comic. A monthly preview magazine of upcoming Marvel Comics releasing in each month's publication. 2021 was a record year for comic book sales, as well as fiction book sales overall, over the last 5 years and very close to 2016 levels when 99 million copies were sold to comic book stores. Whether Perelman was directly to blame or not, the consequences for the industry as a whole were painful in the extreme. However, you find more and more titles with female characters and writers released, so this demographic is likely to change. So lets take a dive into the Marvel Comics universe, and see just how big it is. Peter seemingly died in Otto Octavius ailing form, and his last wish moved Otto himself to renounce villainy and fight crime as the Superior Spider-Man. . Its headquarters are in New York City. 3 Superman #1 (First Solo Superman Comic) The Man of Steel himself would undoubtedly get his own solo series after his stellar introduction rocked the country. Comichron. Likely, Batman is just more popular. In 1956 rival company DC Comics ushered in the so-called Silver Age of comics by reintroducing superhero titles with significant commercial success. Who was Marvel Comics first original character? Highest-grossing film franchises and series 2022, Marvel Comics films: production costs and global box office revenue 2002-2022, Global box office revenue of the most successful movies of all time as of 2022, The Spider-Man series: domestic and global box office revenue 2019. If the films didnt make money, those superheroes would suddenly belong to the bank. More: Who is the Spawn Universe's New Star, Gunslinger Spawn? Or it may have been the more than four dozen variant covers. Check out these interesting comic book facts! The market size will grow at a CAGR of 10.5% from 2022 to 2030. This issue is valued at $25,000, while the verified record sale is $456k. Arad served as executive producer on the hit animated TV series X-Men, and by the summer of 1993, had brokered a deal with 20th Century Fox to make an X-Men movie. One of the most iconic DC comic book characters, Batman has sold 474 million issues so far. If in 2009, Marvel had 32,000 comics, this would give them about 457 comics per year for 70 years. Marvel Comics is an American media and entertainment company regarded as one of the big two publishers in the comics industry. But the fascinating thing about the . And thats what everybody thought was gong to happen with X-Men #1, which shipped in staggered installments over five weeks, with five different covers. switching to Penguin Random House Publisher Services, Star Wars: Trail of Shadows Begins a New Mystery With Dead Jedi. 1. Who is the Spawn Universe's New Star, Gunslinger Spawn. In 1939, Timely Comics published Marvel Comics No.1, which featured well-known characters such as The Human Torch, the Angel, the Masked Raider, Ka-Za, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. These were snapped up hungrily by readers, but also by speculators assuming that theyd stumbled on a sure-fire means of making money by storing copies up and selling them for a profit in the future. Which means that the number of characters that exist in the comics has to be higher than that. Studios has had some high performers, notably BRZRKRand Something is Killing the Children. Over 94 million copies of comic books and graphic novels were sold in 2021 in the United States. The bubble Gaiman described had begun several years earlier, when comic books, once considered disposable items by parents, were becoming prized items by collectors whod grown up with their favorite superheroes as kids. A copy of Marvel Spotlight #5 (1972, Marvel Comics) . 1. This growth trend expects to continue, although there was some disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This page is not available in other languages. July 5, 2022. has seen many changes in recent years, largely due to the influence of comic book movies. If you want to base everything on confirmed numbers, youve got to throw in quite a few caveats. Summer 2021 has made history with some of the best comic book sales in 25 years - and the best since DC's Rebirth initiative in summer 2016. closed the gap during the pandemic, but Marvel still came out on top. If youre like me, you watch the MCU movies, and enjoy the occasional comic storyline of certain characters. When you purchase through links on The article claimed that Demon Slayer sold 100 million copies, while American comics had only sold 15 million units. statistic alerts) please log in with your personal account. links. However, Japan has the largest market share, with 43% of the global total. In 2003, a talent agent named David Maisel came to Marvels Isaac Perlmutter with a proposal. Diamond Comics is one of the largest comic distributors in the US. According to Comichron, which collates comic book sales across the direct market, in summer 2021 comic book sales were at one of their highest points in the last 25 years. The global market for print comic books was worth $7.79B in 2022, up from $7.14B in 2021. Major publishers are adjusting their distribution models in light of the pandemic, with several major companies switching to Penguin Random House Publisher Services for distribution of comics and graphic novels; it's still too soon to say how that will ultimately affect the comic book market. With steadily increasing sales over the past few years, you can expect the sale of comic books to continue to grow - especially as characters increase in popularity due to cinema appearances. The best of the best: the portal for top lists & rankings: Strategy and business building for the data-driven economy: Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). Omissions? As an Amazon Associate we earn commissions from qualified purchases. With that in mind, here are the 10 best-selling American single-issue comic books, according to the most concrete numbers in the industrys spotty history. For the next few questions, I want you to keep in mind that Marvel has published superhero comics for about 82 years. This trend continued with a flood of other superhero characters introduced by Marvel Comics during the early 1960s, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the X-Men. Comic books were already popular in the past but were not considered a mainstream form of entertainment. For several decades Marvel and DC were the top companies in the industry. This has had a knock-on effect on sales. Profit from the additional features of your individual account. But, like Ali at Retrogeekery says, it's probably best to round this number up to 40,000 thanks to variations in comic publishing. But that seems too small a number for the Marvel Universe. Recent comic book sales stats show that DC comics sales closed the gap during the pandemic, but Marvel still came out on top. However, with the growing popularity of the Marvel and DC film series, comics have found a large new audience, and the industry has grown significantly. Because of the plethora of distributors at the time, it's hard to determine how many copies of Venom: Lethal Protector #1 sold in late 1992 and early 1993. The last few years have been difficult for the comic book industry, and the entire direct market has frequently been called into question. The problem, however, would be convincing Marvels board of directors and, just as vitally, gaining the requisite financing. It was them who, in 1941, published the first issue of Captain America. 1 (November 1961), readers were introduced to a superheroic setting that was, nevertheless, rooted in the real world. Marvel continue to benefit from Star Wars, with both War of the Bounty Hunters and Star Wars: The High Republic - a bold transmedia initiative - flourishing. Its a big jump from Fantastic Four #60s 752,699 copies and Star Wars #1s just over one million. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. A rare Golden Age Marvel classic made waves this week with a multi-million dollar sale. Under his watch, Marvel continued to blossom; Iron Man, his first credit as producer for the studio, made $585 million, kick starting a cinematic universe that is still only just unfolding. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The industry is worth billions of dollars, and DC and Marvel comics dominate it. In 2007 Marvel began publishing digital comics. The first comic book issued by Marvels precursor Timely Comics, in October 1939, featured the debut of the characters Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, the Angel, Ka-Zar, and the Masked Raider. Comic books are traditionally seen as a male-dominated industry, and the statistics reflect that. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it came to be known, grew into one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. May 2023 Horoscopes and Book Recommendations. to incorporate the statistic into your presentation at any time. The issue also had nearly 100 different variant covers to collect, and subscription box service Loot Crate also placed a hefty order of the comic, packaging a copy of Star Wars #1 in every box of its monthly shipment. Sixty years total, and over 540,000 pages . Its parent company, Marvel Entertainment, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Disney Company. Marvel Studios, the companys film and television division, continued to set records with its flagship Avengers, but it also packed theatres with relatively unknown heroes such as the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), and Doctor Strange (2016). The comic book industry has grown in recent years, and interesting trends are emerging. Ill give you a hint: it was published on January 15, 2009. Within two years, Marvel was on the stock market, and Perelman went on a spending spree: he bought shares in a company called ToyBiz, snapped up a couple of trading card companies, Panini stickers, and a distribution outfit, Heroes World. Use Ask Statista Research Service, excluding DC titles; includes all items on Diamond's Top 400 charts, plus any post-#400 items from its Top Independent Publisher charts. And thats without considering the apples to oranges comparison of Americas single issues method of distribution to, say, Japans doorstop-like weekly anthology magazines. As the 1940s came to a close, superheroes fell out of vogue with comic book readers, and Timely canceled the last of its books in this genre in 1950. Comic book sales in North America generated nearly $2.08 billion in 2021, up from $1.28 billion in 2020. Add that to the 32,000 comics already . DC and Marvel are constantly battling for the top spot, but both outstrip their smaller competitors by a long way. Often pictured with a broad grin and a huge cigar in his hand, Perelman was a millionaire businessman with a variety of interests: in 1985, hed made a huge deal for cosmetic firm, Revlon through his holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. By 2020 more than 20 films had been released under the banner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the franchises cumulative global box office receipts had topped $22 billion. By the time 2021 wrapped up, they held 31.7% of all sales. Of all the comic book sales statistics on this list, this one is probably the least surprising. Its parent company, Marvel Entertainment, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Disney Company. So, though unofficial, I think the Marvel fandom database could be the closest to the real number. In 1967 Jim Steranko began to write and draw stories featuring secret agent Nick Fury in the anthology book Strange Tales. Within adult fiction, the graphic novel genre had the biggest increase, with units jumping 109.3%, followed by fantasy, which saw sales rise 45.3%. They werent the only heroes introduced by Timely Comics, though. Lee wrote the majority of Marvels books during that time, and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the most important and influential artists. We couldnt get a handle on how much of the market was driven by speculators, Perelman said; the people buying 20 copies and reading one and keeping 19 for their nest egg. show that Marvel and DC are less prevalent in Japan, but they still prevail in overall comic book sales. List of current Marvel Comics publications. How to Flush DNS Cache on Windows 10 and 11 [3 Easy Methods], Ways to Fix DNS Server Not Responding Windows 11 Edition, DNS Isn't Resolving Xbox Server Names - 5 Ways To Fix It, How To Flush DNS on Mac: A Quick and Simple Guide, How to Find Someone on Tinder? It was literally a daily fight, trying to open peoples eyes to what was right in front of them, he later said.

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