Tag Archives: Sales

Blackest Night: Flash Ranked #9 for January

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Diamond has released their top 100 comics for January, and Blackest Night: The Flash takes the #9 spot. Once again, it beat out the other two Blackest Night tie-in miniseries (Wonder Woman and JSA), though this probably has more to do with the fact that Blackest Night writer Geoff Johns penned it than with the Flash’s popularity. ICv2 has sales estimates for the top 300, showing a typical second-issue drop of about 14% to roughly 69K.

Issue Rank (Month) Units Sold Change
Flash: Rebirth #1 2 102,429 +286.6%
Flash: Rebirth #2 4 86,183 -15.9%
Flash: Rebirth #3 10 83,086 -3.6%
Flash: Rebirth #4 14 78,107 -6.0%
Flash: Rebirth #5 9 73,875 -5.4%
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 5 80,313 +8.7%
Blackest Night: The Flash #2 9 69,381 -13.6%

The drop is comparable to the one from the first to second issue of Flash: Rebirth, and considerably less than the steep 35% drop from the first to second issue of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

Flash in the Top 500 & Blackest Night: The Flash Outsells Flash: Rebirth

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Diamond has released its Top 500 comics for 2009, and Flash: Rebirth comes in at #16.

Other issues come in at:

Issue Rank (Year)
Flash: Rebirth #1 16
Flash: Rebirth #2 55
Flash: Rebirth #3 75
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 102
Flash: Rebirth #4 107
Flash: Rebirth #5 125

Meanwhile, ICv2 has posted sales estimates for December 2009. We already knew Blackest Night: The Flash #1 was ranked #5 for the month, and the actual sales estimate comes in at 80,313 copies sold. For comparison:

Issue Rank (Month) Units Sold Change
Flash: Rebirth #1 2 102,429 +286.6%
Flash: Rebirth #2 4 86,183 -15.9%
Flash: Rebirth #3 10 83,086 -3.6%
Flash: Rebirth #4 14 78,107 -6.0%
Flash: Rebirth #5 9 73,875 -5.4%
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 5 80,313 +8.7%

Yes: that’s right. Blackest Night: The Flash outsold the last two issues of Flash: Rebirth. Most likely one of two things is happening:

  • The Blackest Night brand is helping sales, bringing in readers who otherwise wouldn’t be reading a Flash solo book.
  • Flash fans who have gotten tired of waiting for Flash: Rebirth are picking up Blackest Night: Flash.

Probably both, though I wouldn’t try to guess which factor is more significant.

Update: The Beat has posted their analysis of DC’s December sales.

Blackest Night: Flash Ranked #5 Comic for December

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Diamond has released their list of Top 10 products for December 2009, and Blackest Night: The Flash #1 is ranked #5.

Blackest Night dominates the list, with the flagship series itself in the number one spot, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps at #2 and #6, and the Blackest Night: Wonder Woman and JSA miniseries debuting at #8 and #10. The remaining slots were taken up by Captain America: Reborn and Avengers titles.

Actual sales estimates aren’t available yet, so we have yet to see how sales on Blackest Night: Flash compare with those on Flash: Rebirth…but it’s impressive that of the three tie-in miniseries launching last month, Flash did the best. Being written by the author behind the main series can’t hurt, of course!

Flash: Rebirth #5 Still Above 70K

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A couple of weeks ago I posted that Flash: Rebirth #5 took the #9 spot in November’s sales rankings. Since then, ICv2 has posted full sales estimates for the month.

Issue Rank Units Sold Change
Flash: Rebirth #1 (of 6) 2 102,429 +286.6%
Flash: Rebirth #2 (of 6) 4 86,183 -15.9%
Flash: Rebirth #3 (of 6) 10 83,086 -3.6%
Flash: Rebirth #4 (of 6) 14 78,107 -6.0%
Flash: Rebirth #5 (of 6) 9 73,875 -5.4%

It looks like the drops may be leveling off. The drop from #3 (the last issue to ship on time) to #4 (the first issue to be several months late) was sharper than expected, but this drop was smaller — and in fact the sales ranking went up!

The book continues to outsell the 2007-2008 relaunch by a factor of two, and is holding above Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, which sold in the 54-62K range. On the other hand, it seems to be dropping at a comparable rate to Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. Maybe it’s more typical (and less cause for concern) in a miniseries than in a regular series. Update: The Beat has more analysis of DC’s November sales.

Whatever the case, I’m really curious about the numbers for Blackest Night: The Flash.

Flash: Rebirth #5 Ranked #9 for November

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Full sales estimates aren’t available yet, but the November top 10 list shows that Flash: Rebirth #5 took the #9 spot (The Comics Chronicles, via Robot6). That’s lower then the debut issue (ranked #2 for April), but considerably higher than Flash: Rebirth #4, which had dropped to #14 for August.

DC Comics took seven of the top ten slots…four of them written by Geoff Johns: Blackest Night, Green Lantern, Adventure Comics and Flash: Rebirth.

Flash: Rebirth Ranked #14 for August

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IcV2 has posted their top 300 comics for August list with estimated sales figures. With no issue in July, Flash: Rebirth #4 still pulled a top-20 spot on the chart for August, coming in ranked #14. Sales estimates dropped below 80K to 78,107 copies.

Issue Rank Units Sold Change
Flash: Rebirth #1 (of 6) 2 102,429 +286.6%
Flash: Rebirth #2 (of 6) 4 86,183 -15.9%
Flash: Rebirth #3 (of 6) 10 83,086 -3.6%
Flash: Rebirth #4 (of 6) 14 78,107 -6.0%

Most comics do drop in sales from month to month, miniseries especially, but my understanding is that they usually level out. Flash: Rebirth actually dropped more from #3 to #4 than it did from #2 to #3…despite the fact that, according to ICv2, overall sales rose in August, buoyed by Blackest Night and Dark Reign.

So why the drop?

  • Did the delay cause readers to lose interest?
  • Did casual readers drop it at the half-way point? Is that typical? (I’ve found I usually give a miniseries 2 issues if I’m on the fence.)
  • Did the slow pacing of the first few issues frustrate readers?
  • Is it because it’s the first issue to be solicited after Flash: Rebirth #1 hit the stores? I’d expect that to have helped sales, given how well #1 has done.
  • Did budget crunches force readers to choose between Blackest Night and Flash: Rebirth?
  • Is it actually typical, and I’m just reading too much into it?

I’m puzzled.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?

Update October 2: The Beat thinks that these are “solid figures for a Flash title…especially considering that the property has gone through two failed major relaunches since 2006.”