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New Avengers #1 Tops 240K

Ultimates #2 Also Debuts Strong

Published: 01/18/2005 12:00am

New Avengers #1 was the best-selling comic in December, topping 240,000 copies sold to comic shops by Diamond Comics Distributors according to our ICv2 estimates.  This was the best debut by a new title this year, and the top one-month piece sales on a book since the advent of actual sales reporting in March 2003.  Ultimates 2 #1 was a second strong debut for Marvel, with sales over 146,000  copies.

 

Other than the debuts, the top 25 titles once again exhibited some weakness, with sales on 16 of the top 25 titles dropping vs. November.  Only five titles had sales upticks vs. the previous month.  Among the titles showing growth were Identity Crisis and Green Lantern: Rebirth.

 

As was the case last month, DC showed considerable strength at the top of the chart, which is usually dominated by Marvel, with five of the top ten and 10 of the top 25. 

 

The top graphic novel, Marvel's Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1, topped 10,000 copies sold to comic stores.

 

The top 25 comic titles during December, along with our estimates of the copies sold to comic stores by Diamond Comic Distributors, are as follow:

 

240,724            New Avengers #1

146,271            Ultimates 2 #1

139,572            Identity Crisis #7

134,103            Astonishing X-Men #7

119,926            Superman / Batman #15

115,657            Superman / Batman #16

106,523            Green Lantern: Rebirth #3

100,244            Superman #212

  89,952            Uncanny X-Men #453

  88,960            Ultimate Spider-Man #70

  86,633            X-Men #165

  82,840            Amazing Spider-Man #515

  80,678            Wolverine #23

  77,931            Ultimate Fantastic Four #14

  76,658            Ultimate Nightmare #4

  74,515            X-Men Fantastic Four #1

  66,220            X-Men The End Book 1 #6

  66,147            JLA Classified #2

  64,461            Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9

  63,791            JLA #109

  62,585            Teen Titans #19

  60,898            Batman #635

  57,975            Supreme Power #14

  53,292            Iron Man #2

  50,691            Legion of Superheroes #1
 

We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores), using Diamond's published sales indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title Diamond uses in its calculations), and using that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  We can check the accuracy of our numbers by comparing the Batman number that we calculate using multiple data points; our numbers for Batman are within 1/10 of 1% of each other, ensuring a high degree of accuracy.

 
For an analysis of the dollar trends in December, see 'December Comic Dollars Up 7%.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during December, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--December 2004.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during December, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--December 2004.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during November, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--November 2004.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during November, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--November 2004.'

 

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through December 2004, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index.'

 
 
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