Retailer and Newsarama contributor Brian Hibbs lets slip an interesting comment about the most recent issue of Civil War in his most recent blog post:
In the “Retail intelligence” category, we’ve had a 20% drop in sales (not orders, SALES) between issue #4 and #5. That’s 20% of a REALLY BIG number, so, y’know, owie. The various tie-in comics are off by about that same amount, too. The wait for #4 didn’t seem to bother anyone too badly (only 3% there, which COULD be within normal mini-series ranges), but a lot of people seemed to have jumped off this one.
I’m curious. Is this something that other retailers are seeing as well? Because 20% is a hell of a drop from one issue to the next.
November 24th, 2006 at 11:28 am
Well, I know that the comic shop near me sold out in one day of 90 copies, so I assume they’re reordering. And this is a very small shop. I only read one of the tie-ins myself and actually stopped buying Amazing Spider-Man because of the Civil War/new costume stuff. I now prefer Ultimate Spider-Man, which I wouldn’t have said a year ago.
November 24th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
People who were right on the edge of dropping the title anyway may finally have done so with #4 which appears to have been a “jump the shark” moment for the mini-series what with the absurd “Thor clone” revelation plus the increasingly irrational and out-of-character antics of Tony Stark and Reed Richards. I’m sure many people took the opportunity to jump ship with that issue.
November 24th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I had about a 21% drop from #4 to #5.
November 24th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Seriously, claiming anything has “jumped the shark” is incredibly tired.
Re: The story. Obviously it’s just one store, but that is admittedly a huge drop. It’ll be interesting to see what the released sales number will be (though I guess that wouldn’t reflect the drop would it? I suppose we’d have to wait until issues 6 and 7 when retailers adjust their orders).
November 24th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
I don’t know for certain that there’s that big of a drop, but I am seeing one at my store. Definitely a big drop in the mini-series, as we had tons of X-men and Young Avengers/Runaways. It was amazing to see the folks dropping off the Civil War train once the spin-offs and tie ins really started going strong. When there were 4 or 5 tie ins people would just pick them all up, but now it’s just the title itself. Probably the biggest effect the delay had on it was expectations. A lot of people asked “Is it worth the wait?” I think that’s a factor no one is addressing when it comes to late books, the doubling of expectations (be it fair or not).
November 25th, 2006 at 1:32 am
–Seriously, claiming anything has “jumped the shark” is incredibly tired.–
Your comment jumped the shark by trying to dismiss the power of the phrase, jumped the shark. I know, it’s complicated.
November 25th, 2006 at 3:56 am
Continuity-wise, the phrase “jump the shark” went through a reboot and gained a lot more shelf life when Henry Winkler’s character on Arrested Development jumped over a dead shark. Damn I miss that show.
Mr. Van Hise, I’d be curious (and I realize you understandably may not have this info) to know if the shop ordered a great deal more than 90 copies on that last issue. The metric being discussed is not if the issue is selling out at the store, but rather how substantial (if at all) was the percentage drop in sales.
I wonder how typical Mr. Van Hise’s reaction is, Civil War driving him to seek out the Ultimate Spider-Man, instead of the CW-impacted Spidey titles. Company events are supposed to drive people toward titles, not away from them.
November 25th, 2006 at 5:37 am
Normally lateness doesn’t make a great deal of difference on the big titles – it never hurt ASTONISHING X-MEN or ULTIMATES noticeably. But then CIVIL WAR is different; it’s 10% story, 90% event, and perhaps events can’t really afford to be late in the same way. It’s clearly true that sales were being boosted massively on all CIVIL WAR titles, which strongly suggests that individual creators weren’t terribly important and Marvel may have misread the importance of holding on to McNiven. (Yes, yes, the trade paperback lasts forever… but this throwaway popcorn book is not going to be a perennial seller. Let’s get real here.)
November 25th, 2006 at 8:51 am
“Yes, yes, the trade paperback lasts forever… but this throwaway popcorn book is not going to be a perennial seller. Let’s get real here.”
We have a saying here at the shop: They’re so busy claiming to be as good as Watchmen, when they haven’t proved they aren’t another Atlantis Attacks.
November 25th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
“Continuity-wise, the phrase “jump the shark” went through a reboot and gained a lot more shelf life when Henry Winkler’s character on Arrested Development jumped over a dead shark. Damn I miss that show.”
Arrested Development was an amazing show with clever writers. However, (at least on the newsarama area of the web) “jump the shark” has become synonymous with “a plot point that I think is silly/don’t like” and is incredibly tired.
And this is getting away from the intent of the post, but I’m glad Marvel didn’t use fill-in artists. I don’t think it has anything to do with claiming it will be a masterpiece, but it does affect the integrity of the work as a whole. And yes, while it is a popcorn-action comic, it still does have some integrity.
November 25th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
In the spirit of Marvel and the possibility of replacing “jump the shark” from now on why don’t we say “sent in the clone” for Marvel.
And to be fair, “Superboy Prime punches wall” already is being used for DC.
Would this help?
November 25th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Meta-commentary on jumping the shark in this thread has jumped the shark.
Oh, and Arch14: Bite me.
November 26th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
That last comment is so over the shark.
November 27th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I second “Send in the Clone”