Daniel Clowes' Ghost World graphic novel, the basis for the film Ghost World (see 'Ghost World Books Boffo'), sold out its fifth printing in less than a week.  It shipped last Friday, August 3, and was sold out as of today.  The sixth printing of the graphic novel ships tomorrow as Fantagraphics Books endeavors to keep on top of a Vesuvius of orders from distributors and retailers.  The Ghost World film, which was written by Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff (Crumb), expanded into a total of 23 theaters in nine markets and grossed $342,576 last weekend, a very respectable $14,895 per screen (in comparison The Princess Diaries the #3 movie last weekend only averaged $9,012 per screen).  Ghost World dropped less than 7% in per screen average from the previous week in which it was on only 7 screens.

 

In addition to the Ghost World graphic novel, Fantagraphics has also published an illustrated screenplay and Diamond has imported a very cool limited edition 'Little Enid' Vinyl Figure (Mar015068) from Japan.  A check on Thursday, Aug. 9 found that Diamond still had the Little Enid figures in stock.  Of course it also makes sense to market all the available Dan Clowes material you have together with the Ghost World items including issues of Eightball, or graphic novels and collections like David Boring, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Pussey!, etc.

 

Later this month the Ghost World film will break out into a number of new markets before going nationwide in September.  Cities that will see the film open in August include: Attlanta, Austin, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Hartford, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Vancouver.  Judging from numerous reports that ICv2 has received from retailers in New York and Los Angeles, sales of the graphic novel have been terrific.  If sales trends continue retailers might well be advised to do some extra marketing when the film opens in their vicinity.  Advertising in entertainment papers (in the movie section) and or on cable TV slots that capture the movie going demographic could pay off in longterm customer development as well as in initial sales.