Question? Why do the Big 2 care about sales? I know as companies they would be profit driven, but look at the whole picture.
DC is part of Time Warner. Marvel is part of Disney. Both of those companies gain profits in the BILLIONS with the Marvel and DC IPs. DC and Marvel get sales in the thousands.
Look at Marvel , there BEST selling comic last year Star Wars #1, sold 1,073,027 at 4.99 retail, so thats a rough 5.4 million dollar gross.
And then look at a book they just cancelled Angela Queen of Hel, which sold 15,968 at 3.99 or a rough 63,000 dollar gross. So the gap for Marvel between overwhelming record breaking sucess and dismal failure is only about 5 million dollars.
The worst performing MCU film, Incredible Hulk grossed 163 MILLION.
5 million is NOTHING to Disney, and by extention nothing to Marvel Entertainment of which comics are a vestigal branch. If the only difference between the absolute best and worst you can do is less than one percent of the FLOOR of where you are getting most of your money from, what is the point of chasing dollars?
Why do DC and Marvel bend over backwards trying to sell? Why cant they just put out whatever they want? Its like selling your body for minimum wage. If a best seller and a worst seller are MATHEMATICALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE why even bother caring about sales? Why not just do what you want, and if it makes a little change, cool. This is like parents making a corporate action plan for there five year olds 5 cent lemonade stand. Whats even the point?
DC and Marvel are in a rare position where they are supported by massive mega companies. So why be bothered with sales when you can do whatever you want with no consequence? Your best and worst make no difference to the man upstairs, so why not just publish the best art you can because its not like it matters anyway.
Is it ego? Inertia. It just seems silly.
>>81295543
You can't be serious.
>>81295586
I am, DC and Marvel comics could shut down tommorow and they would barely put a dent in DC and Marvel Entertainment's profits. If you are making that little money, why bother chasing dollars when you can just publish want you want without caring if it sells or not?
>>81295683
そうだね
>>81295543
its literally a testing ground for IPs, a big success in comics will potentially be a big success if transferred correctly to cinemas or tv
>>81295683
Hi /tv/, still ashamed of capes?
>>81295750
Which is true, and also means that you shouldnt be desperate for dollars, in fact as am IP farm, they should br deliberatly trying everything so that the men upstairs can pick up what is liked.
>>81295683
そうだね
>>81295790
How is saying that comics should stop trying to money grub with sell out books and instead should focus on quality because funds are not an issue, make me tv?
>>81295812
>>81295690
>Upvotes: Upvote posts.
Where were you when 4chan became reddit?
>>81295683
this
Honestly I wonder the same and have been reading comics for a while. You'd think with movies just bringing in the dosh they could just put out whatever weird thing they want, experiment and really let the artists go at it, instead of doing the same old same old hoping for for some different reaction.
>>81295870
EXACTLY. Why bother cancelling a low seller when in the big picture there is no real financial difference between it and your highest selling book?
I've thought about it as well, and the only thing that keeps coming up is that its bad business, and both Disney and WB are businesses obsessed with money. The margins are thin, but they're still there. They're out to make money whatever way they can, but they still have to be making it.
>>81295543
>if the parent company makes so much money, who gives a shit about a few million dollars?
You really have no idea how a business works, do you? That's like saying "why doesn't Google just throw 10 million dollars in the trash every month? They already have so much"
>>81295870
>You'd think with movies just bringing in the dosh they could just put out whatever weird thing they want, experiment and really let the artists go at it
But they can't. They have to show the execs why closing down the comic company is a mistake, and the artistic freedom argument is not valid in corporate culture.
>>81295683
>>81295690
/thread
>>81295944
Thats literally what they do.
They have an entire department for experimental pointless bushit that MAY pay off, but if it doesnt, no harm no foul because they are rolling in it.
It is so common a buisness strategy they have a name for it.
Even animals do it with off spring
>>81295946
>Hey we are gonna keep making IP for you,shutting us down wouldnt make a difference anyway, so just pass us a penny and maybe you will get a movie out of it
Done.
>>81295986
>just pass us a penny and maybe you will get a movie out of it
See, another reason for the publisher to keep pandering.
63,000 may should like a lot of money to you, but it's piss poor to a company like DC/Marvel. Writers, artists, staff and housing all cost both companies millions of dollars.
The parent companies basically use the comics as IP farms. Growing ideas that they can then exploit in film or TV. (For example Civil War.)
>>81295944
Meh, that's a bad analogy.
The comics still act as their IP farm, and the comics are used to "generally" build/maintain the brand. If someone can come through and make a good story that most people won't read (because let's be honest, the number crunchers at Disney know consumers are generally stupid), and then turn around and make it into an averagely successful film recuperating those costs, it's well worth the investment.
>>81295543
Remember DCYou?
>>81296008
They dont need to pander. That penny is from the parent company allowing them to exist,
>>81296134
>They dont need to pander
Tell that to the execs.
>>81296009
I know. But big picture 63k and 5m arent that different.
>>81296011
Exactly. I think sale chasing is a product of ego and dellusion
>>81296051
Yeah, it was stupid to pullback due to sales because sales dont matter.
DC Comics selling millions or thousands makes no difference to dc entertainment
>>81296157
>sale chasing is a product of ego and dellusion
>>81296157
>But big picture 63k and 5m arent that different.
Are you actually retarded?
Even big picture those are vastly different sums.
>>81296156
>>81296177
Why else would they keep acting like there profits are relevant when they havent been in years maybe decades?
>>81296176
>sales dont matter
Except to the people whose jobs depend on them. The day you have a job you will understand.
>>81296184
Not compared to the margins Marvel gets elswhere. If the distance between ceiling and floor for comics is only 5 mil, the tv shows, merch, films and Probabaly some games crush that.
>>81296193
OK, let's close down the Big Two then. But don't complain if the rest of the US comic industry goes down too.
>>81296195
Now you are talking upkeep Which is a budgetary issue Diane Nelson could solve with a stroke of her pen.
A miniscule sliver of a "failure" like BVS could fund dc for years
>>81296220
Are you listening, I didnt say close them down. I said let them make whatever books they want and not care about sales.>>81296195
If DC Comics hasnt shut down with sales this low, I doubt anything would.
>>81296264
>let them make whatever books they want and not care about sales
You already have indies for that.
>>81296276
Actually indies are even more desperate for sales due to ther smaller cash strapped nature
>>81296352
DH, Image, and others are still alive and kicking.
But seriously, OP: actually I agree with you, but when a comic publisher belongs to a big corporation they have to do what execs say. Because execs, sadly, love money not arts.
Oh, and the public has worse taste than you think; initiatives like DCYou fail because people want the same old shit, which means that the Big two have to make as much money as possible,or they will lose their business.
>>81295543
because making comic cost less than a few million per year, it's easy to use it to secure copyrights and test storylines before making htem into movies and games.
next.
>>81295543
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP4wsURn3rw
