Marvel SVP Sales and Marketing David Gabriel confirmed to Comicbook.com that initial orders on Star Wars #1, due out in January, have topped one million copies.  Strong orders from comic shops and a large number of exclusive covers, sold through outlets new to comics, drove the numbers, according to Gabriel. 

But the very heavy variant plan and the exclusive covers are not the only thing driving the numbers, the core demand is also  very strong, Gabriel said.  “I can safely say that even without the massive variant plan on this first issue, the numbers on the regular cover alone would make this the highest selling debut of 2015,” Gabriel told the site. 

This is the best-selling comic since 1999, when sales on Pokemon:  The Electric Tale of Pikachu #4, which was sold primarily in bags through mass merchants, topped a million copies, according to John Jackson Miller’s Comichron.  Miller also points two other comparisons of significance:  Batman #500 in 1993, which he argues was the last book to sell over a million copies in the direct market, and Star Wars #1 in 1977, which at the time was the first book to sell over a million copies since Uncle Scrooge in 1960.

Gabriel credited the strength of the brand and the excitement being created by Disney for the new franchise as the top reason for the orders on the book.