Diamond has released its final comic market shares for July 2001 including all products actually shipped during that month, regardless of when it was scheduled or when it was ordered. The differences between the market shares Diamond reports based on its advance order numbers and the shares reported after the fact are interesting, particularly with regard to the Big Two comic publishers, which have been sniping at each other lately over reorders (DC likes them, Marvel doesn't) and a variety of other topics (see 'Dueling Majors'). DC, which was #2 in market share for July based on advance orders was #1 in market share based on shipments. The shift was relatively large -- DC's market share was nearly 4% higher based on shipments than it was on orders, while Marvel's was around 2% lower. There are several possible reasons for the differences between advance order number and shipment numbers. One is a difference in reorders on new products. Two of Diamond's top twenty reorder products were DCs (Bizarro and Just Imagine); none of them were Marvels. A second is a difference in backlist orders -- DC has hundreds more backlist titles in print than Marvel does. And a third possible reason is a difference between when products were solicited and when they shipped. Here's a chart we produced showing the top comic publishers (over 1%) with their market share ranks and percentages based on advance orders for July vs. shipments in July.
Company | July Sales Market Share Rank | July Sales Market Share Percentage | Advance Order Market Share Rank | Rank Difference | Advance Order Market Share Percentage | Percentage Difference |
DC | 1 | 30.72% | 2 | +1 | 26.85% | +3.87% |
Marvel | 2 | 30.58% | 1 | - 1 | 32.68% | -2.10% |
Image | 3 | 9.16% | 3 | 0 | 8.93% | +0.23% |
Dark Horse | 4 | 5.92% | 4 | 0 | 6.21% | -0.29% |
Wizard | 5 | 3.48% | 5 | 0 | 3.40% | +0.08% |
Viz | 6 | 2.25% | 8 | +3 | 1.80% | +0.45% |
Crossgen | 7 | 1.88% | 9 | +2 | 1.83% | +0.05% |
