DC Entertainment used a full complement of variants to drive sales to North American comic stores for Dark Nights Metal #1 up to 261,997, the number calculated by ICv2 based on Diamond Comic Distributors sales indexes and publisher information provided to ICv2 (see "Top 300 Comics Actual – August 2017").  Marvel sales were weak, with the company’s top book selling only 86,123.

Variants for Dark Nights: Metal #1 included three "open to order" covers by top artists (Andy Kubert, Jim Lee, and John Romita Jr.), a midnight release variant (also open to order) and a 1/100 incentive variant.  Other marketing support included midnight release party collateral (see "'Dark Nights: Metal' #1 Midnight Release Party").  Dark Nights: Metal is the core miniseries of a new event, with numerous tie-ins.

With Dark Nights: Metal and two Batman issues all over 100,000 copies sold, DC took the top three slots on the August Top Comics chart.  The rest of the top ten comics were all Marvels, but at relatively modest sales levels of 86,123 for Secret Empire #10, down to 65,943 for Star Wars #35.

For an analysis of the dollar trends in August, see "Ouch! Comics Down Over 20% in Comic Stores in August."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during August see "Top 300 Comics Actual--August 2017."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during August, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--August 2017."

For links to all previous Top 300 Comic and Top 300 Graphic Novel articles, see "ICv2 Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."