Diamond Announces Top Products For March 2014

Marvel Comics was March’s top publisher, with a 34.31% Dollar Share and 38.17% Unit Share, compared to 25.94% and 29.02% respectively for runner-up DC Entertainment. Image Comics had a strong March with a 11.38% dollar share and 11.04% unit share, and both Dark Horse Comics and IDW Publishing topped 5% in dollar share with 6.19% and 5.29% shares respectively.

Marvel Comics had five of the month’s top ten best-selling comics, led by Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli’s Superior Spider-Man #29 at #5, while DC Entertainment had four titles and Image Comics one with The Walking Dead #124 at #9.

The long-awaited war between the factions of survivors in the wake of the zombie apocalypse erupted in March’s best-selling graphic novel,  Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead Volume 20: All Out War, Part 1 from Image Comics, one of their four titles in the top ten this month. Also of note in the top ten was Dark Horse Comics with Avatar: The Last Airbender Volume 7: Rift Part 1 at #4 and BOOM! Studios’ original Adventure Time graphic novel, Seeing Red, at #8.

Running Press’ Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver Book Kit, a book and toy kit based on the BBC America series, was March’s best-selling book in the comic book specialty market.

McFarlane Toys continued its line of figures based on AMC’s The Walking Dead in March with The Walking Dead TV Series 5 Action Figures, the month’s best-selling Toy product. DC Collectibles also had a strong March, with eight of the month’s top ten best-selling products.

USAopoly’s Monopoly: The Walking Dead Survival Edition returned to the top of the sales charts as March’s best-selling Games product.

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

TOP 10 BOOKS

TOP 10 TOYS

TOP 10 GAMES

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. The account base includes brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, Internet merchants, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during any given month, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

Please note that comics marked with an asterisk have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

The count of new titles shipped includes all titles that were invoiced by Diamond to retailers for the first time during the month and is not the official solicited title count for the month. Variant edition comic books and graphic novels at the same price point count as a single SKU. Variant edition comic books, lenticular covers, digital combo packs, and graphic novels at different price points count as separate SKUs for each edition.

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ABOUT DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS (DCD)—Diamond is at the nexus of comics and pop culture merchandise. Based in Baltimore, MD, DCD is the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books and pop-culture related merchandise, servicing more than 4,000 specialty retailers worldwide. For more information, visit Diamond on the web at www.diamondcomics.com.

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