The Numbers v3: Week 13


JIM DOOM: The August sales figures were released yesterday, and regarding these new Trinity numbers, there are two things going on here.

There’s the obvious drop-off in the number of readers who gave up on weekly comics, presumably due to Countdown’s awfulness. You have to get to week 36 of Countdown, which is past the point I gave up, to get sales as low as the first issue of Trinity.

But the second thing going on here is the astounding drop-off since the first issue. After 13 issues, 52’s sales dropped 15.3% since the first issue; Countdown’s dropped only 3.4%. Trinity dropped 34.9% from issue 1 to issue 13. More than a third of the people who picked up the first issue have given up on this series in only 13 weeks.

Though the first two titles’ week 13 numbers were clearly aided by the artificial spike seen above, that still doesn’t change the fact that 52 never lost 35% of its first-issue numbers. Neither did Countdown.

52’s lowest point was at #43, which was a 33.7% drop from first issue sales, but it never dipped that low again. Countdown’s lowest sales figure was at issue 9 (week 42), which was a 26.0% drop from its first week.

It’s also worth noting that 52’s first issue was much more of an outlier than Countdown’s.

DOOM DeLUISE: Whoa. I think a lot of people bought issue 1 of 52 just to see what it was all about, and then just decided against it for whatever reason. The second two weekly series suffered from people knowing what they were getting themselves invested in from the start.

With Trinity, I wonder if it’s the format. I was really put off by the front story/back story format.

JD: There’s also that abrupt change in the sales that we (or more likely our readers) pointed out was likely due to comics shops’ return policies. But if you try to ignore those spikes and kind of connect the two curves, 52 seemed to even out — or at least begin a much more gradual decline — by about week 7. Countdown was already on a steady slope by issue 2.

The downward trajectory of Trinity is really only rivaled by the first three months of 52, which were understandable due to, like you said, readers’ first exposure to the new format. The problem with Trinity is that people know the format by now; the only real explanation is that the story just isn’t hooking them.

DD: But Konvict is so cool!

JD: I have no idea what to make of that spike in week 9, though. I’m going to just assume it’s an accounting thing, just like all the other bumps that we tried to read too much into.

DD: Blame it all on Countdown. People bought Countdown initially because they liked 52, but Countdown pissed off so many people, including the completists, that it ruined any good faith in weekly series from that point on.

JD: No doubt. How many issues did you give Trinity? One?

DD: I didn’t buy a single one. Doomanchoo bought the first four or so. I only read the first one, and then couldn’t even be bothered to read his issues.

JD: Did countdown start with issue 52 or 51?

DD: Fifty-one.

JD: Wow, what a rip off — a 52-week series with only 51 issues. Or was DC Universe #0 supposed to be its final issue?

DD: Yeah, even though it made absolutely no mention of Countdown, and the final issue of Countdown ended with “The End.”

JD: Was that ever explicitly stated — that DCU #0 was the conclusion? Wasn’t DCU #0 added after the fact when Countdown and Final Crisis didn’t line up?

DD: That’s right. I think the only time they mentioned it in conjunction with Countdown was when they said it was going to serve as showing where those characters from Countdown fit into the larger DCU for the next big event.

Apparently, that answer is nowhere.