| Author |
Topic:
What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Lord_Hydronium
Registered:
Jun '02
|
Date Posted:
11/3/06 4:59pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
- Date Edited:
11/3/06 5:00pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Lord_Hydronium
|
Jeff_Ferguson posted:
Well, top-grossing movies of all time lists are measured in dollar amounts, rather than ticket amounts. Seeing as how tickets were a heck of a lot cheaper in 1977, it's actually phenomenal that Star Wars is still in the top five.
Keep in mind that that gross includes all its releases, so it's a mix between 1977 prices, 1980, etc. I think it includes the SEs, too. Not that it's not an impressive achievement. The funny thing is that in an adjusted price list it's still number 2.
-----signature-----
Great midis have little midis
Swimming round inside 'em
And little midis have lesser midis
And so ad infinitum.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
QuentinGeorge
Registered:
Dec '03
|
Date Posted:
11/3/06 7:18pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
|
Adjusted, it is after Gone With the Wind as the highest-grossing film of all time.
-----signature-----
Author of the Onara Kuat and Pello Scrambas databank entries
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Havac
Title: Lit Mod of War
Registered:
Sep '05
|
Date Posted:
11/3/06 7:54pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Kriffing Titanic. 
-----signature-----
"If Havac was a pinata, when you beat him all that would come out is win." - Uli
Recipient of Thrawn McEwok's Sexually Ambiguous Tusken Raider™ and a Special Golden Ewok™
"Reality doesn't care if you believe it." - Boba Fett
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Jeff_Ferguson
Registered:
May '06
|
Date Posted:
11/3/06 9:33pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
How would you make those adjustments? Different movie theatres have different prices. 
Whose intention was that, Quest? Lucas', while working with Cam & Kevin on the ancient Sith?
-----signature-----
Hey, I'm excited for Millennium Falcon!
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
|
Date Posted:
11/4/06 4:54am
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
I've seen TFAW say "10k" CW1, and about 50k CW TPBs for one of the later releases, but it's been removed since.
-----signature-----
My utilisation of complex locution to ask what's more pathetic, fans who worship their
movie actors, or the actors who couldn't give a damn, is more a reflection of my own
superincumbent mental actuity than any circumscribed lexicon. Don't you agree?
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Imperialles
Registered:
Jun '05
|
Date Posted:
11/4/06 10:53am
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
|
According to the "Star Words" of Marvel Star Wars 7, the comic adaption of ANH had reached 2 million printed copies by the time of #7's printing.
-----signature-----
--~~~~ Bureaucrat of Wookieepedia Join us today! http://www.wookieepedia.com
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
The2ndQuest
Title: :
-Games
-LACWAC
-Lit Mod of Death
Registered:
Jan '00
|
Date Posted:
11/4/06 11:18am
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Jeff_Ferguson posted:
Whose intention was that, Quest? Lucas', while working with Cam & Kevin on the ancient Sith?
Hard to say- it was definitely the original intention of the TOTJ folk, but whether or not that came from their discussions with Lucas and the details of the ancinet Sith and Jedi he provided them, is unclear.
-----signature-----
K'Kruhk, 140 ABY: "Why haven't I come forth earlier to share my Jedi knowledge with Skywalker?
Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
"If I don't die, I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth." - Drew_Atreides
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Chimpo_the_Sith
Registered:
Mar '03
|
Date Posted:
11/6/06 2:17am
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Well Star Wars Legacy is right now the best selling Star Wars comics on market with over 35k copies sold for issue.
But what is the highest selling Star Wars comics of alltime I have no idea.
I once heard that AOTC novel by R.A. Salvatore sold over one milion copies but that was just a rumour.
-----signature-----
"I actually like Jaina/Jag best. Because they're such an imperfect fit, unstoppable force vs. unmoveable object, they challenge each other more and make one another cooler." Aaron Allston 
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Intrepid_Meredith
Registered:
Mar '06
|
Date Posted:
11/6/06 12:53pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Looking through the circulation numbers in Comics Buyer's Guide's Standard Catalog of Comic Books, 4th Edition, I'd have to say the Marvel Comics' run of Star Wars was the highest-selling in terms of numbers. The Statement of Ownership in issue 33 shows 281,469 existing copies, slowly descending to 142,779 copies with the statement in issue 105.
Trying to guess the circulation of the later Dark Horse issues becomes more tricky. Because Dark Horse never sent comics through the mail at the special Second Class Rate, they were not required to file a Statement of Ownership with the U.S. federal government. Thus, we must rely upon sales records from Capital City Distribution and Diamond Comic Distributors, the primary distributors of comics to the U.S. direct market in the 1990's. There're a lot of assumptions and loose math involved here because all the data from both companies has not been tabulated, some of the info is based on retailers' pre-orders, not actual orders, newstand sales are not included, blah, blah, blah. BUT that being said, I'd estimate that Dark Horse's top selling issue (not counting reprints) was Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi #1 (around 200,000 copies), narrowly beating out Star Wars: Dark Empire #1 (around 175,000). After reprints are added in, DE probably wins out.
As for current Star Wars comics? Most series seem to start at around 25,000-30,000 copies, then settle into sales around the 20,000-25,000 mark. What's the big difference? Well, the early 1990's saw comics sales (and speculation) at their highest since comic's heydays in the 1940's. Also, TOTJ and DE were the first new Star Wars comics to come out in 10 years, since the end of the Marvel series. A strong confluence if ever there was one! The later '90's saw the bottom drop out of the comics market as speculators realized that All Comics Were Not Gold. Hoards of stores, publishers and distributors went out of business, and dollar sales in the market as a whole dropped about 50% from their early-'90's highs. The market does seem to finally stabilized, but it's still trying to catch up to previous years. Another example? In 1993, Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man #380 printed a Statement of Ownership showing a print run of 592,442 copies. In 2003, sales were down to 122,173.
The lesson here? Support your local comics store, and keep buying more Star Wars comics!
-----signature-----
--Meredith Miller
Occupation: stage mother, wife, Star Wars fan
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Kyptastic
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Sep '05
|
Date Posted:
11/6/06 1:03pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
|
Do we have any idea how much of a comic or book they have to sell to make a profit?
-----signature-----
Valar Morghulis
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Chimpo_the_Sith
Registered:
Mar '03
|
Date Posted:
11/6/06 2:43pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
|
Well for Marvel comics that sell around 25k are not worth publishing anymore. But for Dark Horse I think that Star Wars Legacy was the highest selling comics in September with 35k comics sold and it is probably very profitable for them.
-----signature-----
"I actually like Jaina/Jag best. Because they're such an imperfect fit, unstoppable force vs. unmoveable object, they challenge each other more and make one another cooler." Aaron Allston
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Intrepid_Meredith
Registered:
Mar '06
|
Date Posted:
11/6/06 3:46pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Kyptastic posted:
Do we have any idea how much of a comic or book they have to sell to make a profit?
To some degree that's going to depend on how much they have to pay the writer, artist(s), etc. Presumably, a very well known/popular writer/artist will need to be paid more than someone less well known. On the other hand, the better known the creator(s), the better sales will be on the book, thus increasing profits despite the higher production costs. (At least to start with. Even popular writers sometimes write bombs.) Also, overhead at the publisher's office will be a factor. I'm fairly certain Marvel has more people working in their offices (editors, ad sales, marketing, accounting, etc.) than Dark Horse. All those people and their employee benefits get paid out of the comics' profits too. Marvel has a pile of stockholders to please, and Dark Horse has to pay Lucasfilm a liscencing fee.
So the cover price of the comic, how many copies of the comic you sell and how many monthly (or at least regularly scheduled) titles you have all affect how much money you have at the end of the month. Dark Horse's comics cost more than Marvel's, but they have fewer titles, and those titles generally sell fewer copies. Then again, that money probably doesn't have to stretch as far paying for its 'support services' as Marvel's does.
Also, it's common in the publishing industry that the profits from several very well performing titles will go to help support one or two titles that are limping along in the hopes that the limpers just need a little more time to pick up their audience.
So, to answer you question (finally!), the point at which a publisher needs to cut off a title varies from publisher to publisher, and is probably fluid even within a single publisher's line. Was that vague enough? 
-----signature-----
--Meredith Miller
Occupation: stage mother, wife, Star Wars fan
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
|
Date Posted:
11/7/06 1:44am
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
The big retail chains also play a heavy factor on what books hardcover first, and estimated print run number. Does the same apply for comics?
-----signature-----
My utilisation of complex locution to ask what's more pathetic, fans who worship their
movie actors, or the actors who couldn't give a damn, is more a reflection of my own
superincumbent mental actuity than any circumscribed lexicon. Don't you agree?
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Intrepid_Meredith
Registered:
Mar '06
|
Date Posted:
11/9/06 9:39am
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
Excellence posted:
The big retail chains also play a heavy factor on what books hardcover first, and estimated print run number. Does the same apply for comics?
Comic print runs are set thusly:
Say your comic is planned to ship in March. You solicit it to the comic stores in January. The retailers place their orders based on the comic series' past performance, or predicted performance based on similar series (if the title is a new one), or throwing runes and deciphering sheep entrails (unfortunately, it occasionally is just that shot-in-the-dark). You, the publisher, receive the total retail order number, then you may tack on a few extra copies for anticipated retail reorders, or office or review copies, etc. Or, if you're absolutely certain that the retailers have underordered your title (and also floating in cash), you may tack on a lot of extra copies. Or if the budget is very tight, you add nothing. This number is then sent to the printer's, and the print run is set.
So if you, the customer, reeaaalllly want that copy of title 'X', make sure your retailer knows to order it for you 2 months in advance. The more people the retailer knows are interested in a title, the more copies he's likely to order. Comic retailers in the Direct Market (i.e.- most comic retailers) order their comics on a NON-returnable basis. So anything they're stuck with at the end of the month, they have to absorb (bye-bye profit margin) and hope they can sell it as a back issue/collector's item (Soviet Super Soldiers and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld -- not likely!). Retailers who routinely overorder their comics go out of business very quickly. Of course, retailers who underorder routinely sell out too quickly and loose customers as a result. It's a very fine line they tread, and ordering big on some new, unknown title can have dire consequences indeed...
-----signature-----
--Meredith Miller
Occupation: stage mother, wife, Star Wars fan
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
jfostrander
Title: Writer:
-Legacy
-Republic/Jedi/Purge
Registered:
Jul '01
|
Date Posted:
11/9/06 3:25pm
Subject:
RE: What is Star Wars' highest selling Book and Comic?
|
One of the things to keep in mind and that is REALLY different from the Marvel days is that the profit center has moved from the 22 page monthly phamphlet to the trade paperback (TPB) reprint of those stories. This is true for all publishers. The real purpose of the monthly book is to absorb the cost of creating the work -- paying the story's creators, production work, printing, and so on. For the TPB, the work is mostly done. Usually they'll have a new cover and, of course, there is the printing cost but the TPBs really generate the profit for the comic companies. In addition, they have a shelf life and can be kept in print for as long as there is a demand. A monthly book has a shelf life of MAYBE three weeks and often not more than ten days. In the old days, the comic book companies got one bite of the apple and that was it. The books were disposble. There was no secondary market.
I'm not sure, but those numbers for Marvel in the statement of ownership may not represented what was sold but what was PRINTED. At the start, there was still a newstand presence (I THINK -- my memory may be playing me false). For the newstand, you always printed quite a bit moe than you were going to sell. The unsold comics were returnable. That's why the comicsd shops wee such a boon to the industry -- they publishers could print to order with much less waste. That really saved he industry at that point.
Also, numbers before the Marvel crash were generallyt higher than they are today. The market itself was healthier and had more retailers AND distributors.
Just a few thoughts to add.
-- John
PS For LEGACY, ultimately you have to add the numbers not only for the first printing but for the second and, in the case of issues 1 and 2, the third. And issue three has now gone back for a second printing. I don't have those numbers myself but it's fun to hear!<g>
-----signature-----
writer on SW Legacy among other things
Jan Duursema's badassery knows no bounds.
I'm making this up as I go.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
