give a clear picture of industry performance. The company continued to release comics under the Marvel name through the 1940s and 50s. One of the most iconic DC comic book characters, Batman has sold 474 million issues so far. Then fast forward to the early 60s, after DC Comics ushered in a so-called Silver Age of comics. This, Gaiman said, was akin to tulip mania a strange period in the 17th century when the value of tulip bulbs suddenly exploded, only for the market to collapse again. 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. For several decades Marvel and DC were the top companies in the industry. Ill give you a hint: it was published on January 15, 2009. The heroes are on their knees, the citys a smoldering ruin and the villains are closing in for the kill. However, DC rarely beat Marvel in terms of market share. 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. 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. Marvel New Year's Eve Special Infinite Comic (2017) Marvel Now! This week ICv2 rolled out a publisher's share chart. 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. Spawn is a long-running comic book series that has a strong cult following. 2015s Secret Wars was a follow up to one of the earliest and most notorious Marvel Comics crossovers of all time, 1984s Secret Wars. A rare Golden Age Marvel classic made waves this week with a multi-million dollar sale. Please do not hesitate to contact me. It was them who, in 1941, published the first issue of Captain America. But thats because it lists series, not individual issues or volumes. No, Diversity Didn't Kill Marvel's Comic Sales - CBR 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). Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Image Comics, meanwhile, will be especially pleased with the sales figures for King Spawn #1; including international sales, it will be their first book to break half a million in the 21st century, likely bolstered by variants. Stan Lee was one of the creators behind Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Thor. The best-selling comic books of all time - Polygon The age group that buys most comic books is 13-29 year olds. How many Marvel comics there are? The Adventures of Tintin. Marvel Value & Price Guide Titles - Quality Comix As an Amazon Associate we earn commissions from qualified purchases. 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,. (July 5, 2022). A monthly preview magazine of upcoming Marvel Comics releasing in each month's publication. In 1988 Todd MacFarlane began a popular run as artist on The Amazing Spider-Man. 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. The market size will grow at a CAGR of 10.5% from 2022 to 2030. Whats interesting is that they do count different iterations of their beloved heroes. The top 300 comics sold at least 24.2 million copies in June, July, and August - more than any summer quarter except 1997 and 2016. 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. More: Who is the Spawn Universe's New Star, Gunslinger Spawn? A copy of Marvel Spotlight #5 (1972, Marvel Comics) . How Marvel Went From Bankruptcy to Billions | Den of Geek Comichron: Yearly Comic Book Sales Theyd been pushed out by two ToyBiz executives whod been on Marvels board since 1993: Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad. Now let's say if Marvel kept producing the same amount of comics year after year. Comichron. This was down from June 2022 when DC Comics had four titles in the Top 10. Its important to note that there is no official record of all of Marvels publications, so the best we can get is an estimate. 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. 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. The article claimed that Demon Slayer sold 100 million copies, while American comics had only sold 15 million units. 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. In 1956 rival company DC Comics ushered in the so-called Silver Age of comics by reintroducing superhero titles with significant commercial success. Comic books are traditionally seen as a male-dominated industry, and the statistics reflect that. Omissions? Also unlike DC, Marvel told stories that were set in real-life locations, such as New York City. newsletter, the companys monopolistic takeover of the American comic book shipping market, the milestone in comics history it represented, a big turn around for the legendary Marvel Comics creator, writer Dan Slotts now legendary Spider-Man run, eventually creating the circumstances under which Miles Morales would become Spider-Man. The comic book world is not a particularly inclusive industry, and its customers are primarily from a white background. Israeli-born Avi Arad brought a gruff swagger to the toy industry. Directly accessible data for 170 industries from 50 countries and over 1 million facts: Get quick analyses with our professional research service. March 21, 2022. During the 1990s and early 2000s a new wave of writers, including Brian Michael Bendis (Daredevil, The Avengers), Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four), and Ed Brubaker (Captain America), became well known for their mature and sometimes controversial takes on Marvels characters. switching to Penguin Random House Publisher Services, Star Wars: Trail of Shadows Begins a New Mystery With Dead Jedi. 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). (2022) Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda (2019 - 2020) . Something went wrong. 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 whats trending? Why not produce the movies under your own banner, and reap the profits for yourself? Oops. First, by marking the beginning of the rise of writer Brian Michael Bendis, and second, by eventually creating the circumstances under which Miles Morales would become Spider-Man. In 2003, a talent agent named David Maisel came to Marvels Isaac Perlmutter with a proposal. And yes, that wiggle room matters. This one, although official, isnt too trustworthy, because it includes some non-superhero characters, and it has entries for big organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D or Hydra. With Scott Sassa gone, they installed the 55-year-old Joseph Calamari, whod been at the helm of Marvel in the 80s, as its new CEO. Digital comics sales have been steadily increasing as more platforms develop and more publishers create online versions of their comics. You can already guess the outcome. The Phantom. They have long been a leading name in the industry and a top rival of DC. One Piece is the biggest selling comic book collection with approximately 490 million sales worldwide. But the first comic, the one that truly started it all was Marvel Comics No. Techjury.net is supported by its audience. How Long Would It Take to Read EVERY Marvel Comic? Atlas Magazines finally became Marvel Comics. Keep an eye on your inbox. Summer 2021 Comic Sales Were the Highest in 5 Years - Screen Rant Other executives with ties with Perlmutter were also severed, including CEO Scott Sassa, whose tenure had, all told, lasted just eight months. May 2023 Horoscopes and Book Recommendations. It kind of depends on what you count as a character. There are villains and heroes, humans and mutants, among many others. And finally, the granddaddy of them all: X-Men #1, famous for being the best selling comic ever that we have hard data on, with close to eight times more issues sold than its 2nd place challenger. Those are titles you'd expect to be in somewhere between 60K-80K (at least) this soon after a relaunch and to be relaunched before they slide down to the 40-49K sales band. For that, we can look to the state of Star Wars in 2015. And yes, that wiggle room matters. Show publisher information Dean Simons-01/03/2023 9:15 am 0. DC and Marvel are constantly battling for the top spot, but both outstrip their smaller competitors by a long way. This is untrue and is based on incorrect numbers, comparing Demon Slayer's number of volumes in circulation with the sales of only the top 750 American comics from one group of retailers. In the early 1960s Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics. Sales Charts Archives - The Beat 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. Check out our list of the top 15 most powerful characters, or laugh with this 60s Marvel superhero kit. The top seller in the category was the backlist. Always with a few chargers and a couple of gadgets in the backpack. reflect a global market value of 7.14 billion dollars. The closest I could come to an answer came from a blog called Retrogeekery. They list 72,659 Marvel characters in total, including a bunch of side-characters and about 146 different versions of Luke Cage (yep, I counted again). Lee and Kirby attempted to make their comic book characters more original by allowing them to interact with each other in a realistic fashion, including heroes often fighting or arguing with each other. Finally, a character whod languished in development hell since the 1990s (Universal originally owned the rights, before they passed to Fox and then New Line) was finally getting a shot at big-screen stardom. But that seems too small a number for the Marvel Universe. 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. In the early 1960s Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics. Undoubtedly yes, but this is why SELL-THROUGH reveals so much. Like others on this list, the issue was an anthology, with some big names in Spider-Man history returning to the character. Things began to change in the late 90s, when Marvel began to find its feet again: Blade was a hit, and X-Men began to finally move ahead at Fox. Are you interested in testing our business solutions? Plus, it also depends on what you want to count as Marvel. Marvel Comics also owns and publishes series like Star Wars or classic monster series like Frankenstein. With their newfound clout, Marvel managed to reacquire the rights to characters it had sold over the years, including Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, and Hulk. Comic Books Through the Years Is the Industry Dying or Thriving, and This growth trend expects to continue, although there was some disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Timelys first comic book was Marvel Comics no. Shortly after the deal with Merill Lynch went through, Marvel announced that Iron Man would be its first independent production. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. This caused the Comic Code Authority to revise its policy in such matters. Sales made through them account for 90% of all sales nationwide. Comic book sales statistics reflect a global market value of 7.14 billion dollars. These are calculated based on all the public reports issued by Diamond for comics shop sales in each month. Image has released a raft of celebratory titles such as King Spawn #1 and Spawn Universe #1, and even Boom! To use individual functions (e.g., mark statistics as favourites, set The Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it came to be known, grew into one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. Marvel Comics differentiated itself from DC Comics in the 20th century by introducing human, fallible superheroes with unlikely or unexpected origin stories. The number of Marvel comics sold increased from 22% in 2018 to 29% in 2019. Print Books Had a Huge Sales Year in 2021 - PublishersWeekly.com Now we have a vague inkling of how big the Marvel Comics universe is. Someone Read All 27,000 Marvel Superhero Comics in 5 Years However, all opinions expressed on our site are solely ours, and this content is in no way provided or Marvel Comics films: production costs and global box office revenue 2002-2022. Login. But I wonder: how many Marvel comics are there? The issue isnt an anthology, but it did have a special promotional edition that sold for a mere nine cents half a year after DCs one-cent-more-expensive promotional stunt. Print sales still outweigh digital editions significantly, but digital sales increased by 750 million dollars in 2020. This is the first, and maybe most, difficult question because there is no definitive answer. closed the gap during the pandemic, but Marvel still came out on top. So lets do some math. The issue isnt the first in its series, but it did mark the beginning of a new era, with writer Mark Waid stepping for what would become an acclaimed three year run on the title. 210. Comic book sales to stores in North America 2022 | Statista Finally, the big question. In the face of mounting losses, Perelman decided to press on into new territory: he set up Marvel Studios, a venture which he hoped would finally get the companys most famous characters on the big screen after years of legal disputes. Please enter a valid email and try again. The anticipation of a new dawn for the franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens collided with a fandom adrift after the majority of its canon was declared defunct. 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. Summer 2021 had the best comic book sales in five years. Throughout the 1980s and 90s Marvel changed hands numerous times, becoming a publicly held company in 1991. Once he had enough sales numbers in place to prove this hypothesis, he then took Marvel public, selling 40% of its stock for vastly more than he paid for the entire company. Likely, Batman is just more popular. Your email address will not be published. Suddenly there were lots of gaps to fill in the Star Wars saga, and Marvel Comics was there to fill them, having recently repossessed the Star Wars comics license from its parent company Disney after Lucasfilms contract with Dark Horse Comics lapsed. In the same . Marvel Comics films: budgets & box offices 2022 | Statista But for the purpose of this exercise, well talk about the superhero side of Marvel (you know, the Avengers and whatnot). The list is updated as of April 27, 2023. By the time 2021 wrapped up, they held 31.7% of all sales. A rare piece of Marvel history, a publisher's annotated copy of the first Marvel comic book, sold at auction on Thursday for $2.4 million. DC and Marvel are constantly battling for the top spot, but both outstrip their smaller competitors by a long way. Marvel Comics depended on the Spider-Man franchise, X-Men Franchise, and Daredevil franchise. When the business turned, observed then-chariman and CEO of Marvel Scott Sassa, it was like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.. However, fans and critics note that the two companies have historically imitated characters and qualities of each others comics. Comic Value & Price Guide for Marvel titles. The comic book industry has grown in recent years, and interesting trends are emerging. With the financial intrigue in the boardroom settling down, Marvel began to turn its attention to a target it had been trying to hit since the 1980s: the movie business. Sales in million units Superman Batman Spider-Man X-Men Captain America The Adventures of Tintin Dragon Ball The Phantom. 40 of the Most Anticipated Beach Reads of 2023, Books About Riots, Murder, Terrorism To Be Removed from Minors at Hamilton East Public Library (IN), The Best Sci-Fi Spaceships from Across the Galaxies, Expand Your Bookshelf With These 8 Interstellar Books Like The Expanse. List of current Marvel Comics publications - Wikipedia The comic book business is huge in Japan, and they have 43% of the total global market share, making them the biggest market for comics in the world. 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. 2020 was a pretty good year for many investments, . Marvels shareholders resisted, arguing that the financial damage to Marvels share prices would be too great. Check out these interesting comic book facts! 1-800-548-3314. All of these factors may have contributed to its sell-out quality. But a cliffhanger cant sell a comic before it hits stands. 1. Between 1993 and 1996, revenues from comics and trading cards began to collapse. Over 90% of all US comic sales belong to Comichron and Diamond Comics. Marvel has a chunk of comics selling in the 40K-49K range. Maybe even take a dive into our Marvel archive: we have a bunch of quizzes and lists! This comes at no extra cost to you. The global market for print comic books was worth $7.79B in 2022, up from $7.14B in 2021. Matters were made even worse by the coronavirus pandemic, which essentially shut the industry down for months and led to many retailers struggling financially. There have been a range of major events, ranging from the X-Men's Hellfire Gala to Batman's (ongoing) Fear State, and there have been several major relaunches. 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. In 2007 Marvel began publishing digital comics. We were giving away the best part of our business, Arad mourned. The 10-cent Adventure kicked off the two part crossover arc Bruce Wayne: Murderer? The 10 Cent Adventures promotional price point (that is, 10 red pennies) probably had more to do with it. This is a list of active and upcoming Marvel Comics printed comic books (as opposed to digital comics, trade paperbacks, hardcover books, etc.). While the comics were flying off the shelves, Marvel attracted the interest of a man named Ron Perelman. Marvel, DC Slug It Out On The 2019 Comics Sales Charts - Forbes Yet somehow, Marvel fought through all the corporate intrigue which dogged the company in late 1996 and for many long months afterwards, and emerged from the rubble a decade later as a film industry behemoth. But were not just talking about Ultimate Spider-Man #1, released in the year 2000. Its a very strong brand, and we planned on this brand. I want to know how big the Marvel Comics universe is. written by Matt Tuck March 25, 2022. Batman is one of the most recognizable comic book characters there is. In 1998, long before the current superhero movie boom, Sony struck a deal with Marvel to license the film rights to Spider-Man, along with 900 related Marvel Comics characters. 10 Best Selling Marvel Comics Of All Time, Ranked - CBR As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic. Considering the Bob Iger interview, if they have the rights to 7,000 characters, the source material couldnt possibly be lower than that. Studios has had some high performers, notably BRZRKRand Something is Killing the Children. 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.