How well do Disney comics sell?

[drakeborough]

As the title explains, my question is: how well do Disney comics sell in each country? And how well did they sold in the past?

I'll partially answer my own question by talking about Topolino, Italy's main Disney comic, which in its current form exists since 1949, originally as a monthly (1949-1952), then as a bimonthly (1952-1960) and finally as a weekly (1960-present).

I can't find exact figures for each issue or even for each year, but by putting together various sources I see that it originally sold 400,000 copies, which then rose to almost a million copies, making it the most sold Italian comic. The figure dropped to 150,000 in the second half of the 1970's, but in 1980 it went up to 250,000, and in the early 1990's it sold again a million copies per issue or even more (the record being issue #1965, dated 25 July 1993, which sold 1,100,285 copies). Since then it went down again, with a few ups, and in the period March 2006-February 2007 the average figure was about 260,000 copies per issue, which was 11% less than the previous year. Figures went further down to 56,000 copies per issue in March 2013, and this was one of the reasons Panini Comics bought the publication rights from Disney Italia in October 2013. Under Panini, the figure rose to an average of 288.908 in July 2014.

To put these numbers in a context, keep in mind that the Italian population counted 46.6 million people in 1949, 46.9 millions in 1950, 50 millions in 1960, 53.7 millions in 1970 56.4 millions in 1980, 56.7 millions in 1990, 57.7 millions in 2000, 59.1 millions in 2010, 60.7 millions in 2016.

How about other countries?

[iggy]

Add to these almost 300k copies the other monthly and bimonthly publications such as Topostorie, Disney Big, i Classici Disney, i Grandi Classici Disney, Paperinik, Paperino, Definitive Collection, Legendary Collection and practically a dozen more, I would say all together it must reach half a mil.
I did not know that panini made such a huge impact in sales, it must be due to all the publications they started, some of them mentioned above and I forgot to mention there are also summer and winter and christmas specials, selected stories in hard cover format and many many more. Things are hectic there, I just started collecting their publications.

[sirredknee]

The German Micky Maus weekly has sold more than 800.000 between 1992 and 1997. These days it only sells about 70.000. The monthly pocket book Lustiges Taschenbuch with current sales of ca. 150.000 is the bestseller in Germany now.


Edit: Best and worst sales of Micky Maus are

1993, 1st quarter: 848.044
2016, 4th quarter:  63.040

[Palmer]

A little history:

"Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, whose first issue was dated October 1940 and by the mid-1950s was the best selling comic book in America with a circulation hovering around three million a month (with the highest level reached being 3,038,000 for the Sept. 1953 issue)." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_comics
[In 1953 US population was 159 million, so 1 person in every 53 had bought a copy]

And then in 1954 "Seduction of the Innocent" was published saying that comics "were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent
Dell Publishing then printed "Dell Comics are Good Comics" on every issue, but the damage was done.

(Back in the early 1950's, I was one of the kids with a subscription.)

[iggy]

there is a great martin&lewis movie that tells of this bad publicity.
Those numbers really were huge

[RobbK1]

I remember the Danish Anders And having about 300,000 circulation during the early 1990s.  Dutch Donald Duck Weekly was over 400,000 a while back.  But now there are a lot of different auxiliary books published.  So, it might be difficult to compare total circulation of pages.

[jumbojr]

Feb 28, 2017 19:44:31 GMT drakeborough said:

Under Panini, the figure rose to an average of 288.908 in July 2014.

That number was for the whole month, obviously. Not average sales per issue.

[drakeborough]

Feb 28, 2017 21:08:38 GMT Palmer said:

"Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, whose first issue was dated October 1940 and by the mid-1950s was the best selling comic book in America with a circulation hovering around three million a month (with the highest level reached being 3,038,000 for the Sept. 1953 issue)."

Recalling a time when Disney comics could sell more than 3 million copies per issue makes it more sad to notice how poorly they sell today in the country that created them. A few figures I found:

April 2015
Uncle Scrooge #1 (405): 19,922 copies

May 2015
Donald Duck #1 (368): 19,945 copies
Uncle Scrooge #2 (406): 14,366 copies

June 2015
Mickey Mouse #1 (310): 24,299 copies
Donald Duck #2 (369): 13,226 copies
Uncle Scrooge #3 (407): 12,397 copies

etc.

Not the IDW is to blame, of course. Instead, it's their merit if Disney comics are still published in the USA at all, given that IDW ended the hiatus between 2011 and 2015.

Mar 1, 2017 2:45:44 GMT jumbojr said:

Feb 28, 2017 19:44:31 GMT drakeborough said:

Under Panini, the figure rose to an average of 288.908 in July 2014.

That number was for the whole month, obviously. Not average sales per issue.

Are you sure? The table from which I took the figures says "Diffusione media".

[jumbojr]

You may be right. I remember reading this(which is a little confusing) www.fumettologica.it/2015/02/topolino-dati-vendita-2014/
and thought the sales were much lower. What actually happened is that in July 2014 they published a new PK story published in 4 issues(with a PK blaster included-in 4 parts) and there was a huge increase in sales because of the PK fans who don't usually buy Topolino.

[cheechako]

I've been collecting sales figures for Disney comics for some time now. It is kind of a hobby for me

Some examples of sales figures (all referring to average yearly sales or diffusion unless otherwise mentioned, not total print run):

Country	Peak sales	Recent sales
Germany	801.017 (1992)	75.329 (2016)
Netherlands	457.398 (1980)	220.276 (2015-Q3 - 2016-Q2)
Norway	more than 250.000 (1975 and 1986)	36.280 (2015)
Sweden	254.100 (1970) (sales or print run?)	45.000 (ca. 2015, print run)
Denmark	219.688 (1972)	26.270 (first half 2014)
Finland	324.500 (2008)	204.723 (2016)
France	633.000 (1957)	105.275 (2016)
Italy	900.000 (1973)	138.318 (+56.708 digital) (2014)
Poland	175.897 (1999)	19.238 (2015)
Brazil	more than 500.000 (Tio Patinhas, early seventies)	40.114 (Tio Patinhas, 2014)
China		ca. 350.000 (2002)
United States	3.038.000 (Walt Disney's Comics 1953-9)
Egypt		between 48.000 and 87.000 (2005)

        

[cheechako]

Here is a graph of the average yearly sales of various countries:

[RobbK1]

Clearly, Finland, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands have had the highest sales per national population. When I was young, virtually every boy I knew in The Netherlands read Donald Duck Weekblad, and most girls from ages 6-12 or so. That was never true in USA or Canada, where many of the boys read only Superhero comics, and lots of girls read Little Lulu and Harvey Comics, and later, romance comics.  It is true that the Franco-Belgian comics and human character comics are also very popular in Northern and Western Europe.

[Ramapith]

Rob, please contact me privately—thanks!

[rasterax]

So, the sudden spike in German sales around 1990 is easily explained by German unification, but what caused the Italian peak (and subsequent decline) in the early 70's?

[cheechako]

Mar 2, 2017 13:46:33 GMT rasterax said:

So, the sudden spike in German sales around 1990 is easily explained by German unification, but what caused the Italian peak (and subsequent decline) in the early 70's?

One reason for the growth in Topolino sales in Italy was probably a tendency to buy Topolino instead of Italy's other, cheaper Disney weekly of that time: Albi della Rosa/Albi di Topolino. In 1964 Topolino sold 310.000 copies and Albi di Topolino 150.000, whereas the average sales in 1976 were respectively 750.000 and 98.000. As the economy grew, more and more people could afford Topolino.

Moreover, the seventies were a golden ages of comics in Italy anyway. Nowhere in the world (well, the non-Japanese world anyway) comics sold better than in Italy those years. They were the last decade where comics dominated Italian youth entertainment, and sales reached a peak all over the field. In earlier decades, comics probably sold less because people could afford less. In later decades, cartoons on television had taken the place of comics as main source of youth entertainment. 

For instance, Gaudenzio Capelli (editor of Italian Topolino 1980-1994) blamed television for the decline of Topolino sales. He said that during the later seventies there was a veritable explosion in Italy of private television offering cartoons and other child-oriented content. 

As for the German sales, it is interesting to note that the German unification was not the only source of the spike in sales. Micky Maus also suddenly sold a lot better in what was West Germany, from 353.000 in the first quarter of 1990 it rose to 436.000 in the third quarter of the year. That is a 24% increase in only half a year! Part of the increase may be related to changes in Micky Maus itself, described here under 1990 - Ein neuanfang.