Movie Trailer Boosts Book Sales
Since the release of the Watchmen trailer, demand for the trade paperback has hit an all time high
Riding a wave of interest and excitement over the new film adaptation of Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbon’s classic superhero graphic novel Watchmen, DC Comics is experiencing a boom in demand for the book, shipping more than 300,000 copies of the graphic novel in the two weeks since the release of the film’s trailer.
The book is a perennial backlist bestseller and on a weekly basis is virtually always among Bookscan’s Top 50 bestselling graphic novels.
But the interest and demand generated by the forthcoming film (not due to open until March 2009), not to mention having the Comic-Con as promotional platform, has generated incredible demand for the book.
“I don’t think there’s record of a trailer moving books with this velocity,” says DC Comics president Paul Levitz. “Bookscan records Watchmen selling 10,000 copies in one week. We’ve put more than 300,000 copies in print in the last two weeks. That’s a pretty amazing record for a 21 year old book.” In 2007, the title sold about 100,000 copies.
“Comic shop retailers have used Watchmen for the last 20 years to introduce graphic novels to curious new readers and they know it creates repeat buyers,” Levitz says. “They sell a copy of Watchmen to a consumer curious about all the fuss and that reader returns for a copy of V for Vendetta by the same author. We believe this book is significantly expanding the readership for graphic novels.”
The book has been doing very well in online sales and was the number 5 best selling book on Amazon.com during the month of July, 2008.
8.3.08 Source: Publishers Weekly
ETA followup story
As we reported earlier this week in our discussion with DC President Paul Levitz, the Watchmen trailer has had a significant effect on sales of the trade collection of the late ‘80s comic series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Previously, orders of 250-300,000 copies of the trade post-trailer were reported, but now, according to the New York Times, that number’s going up. Way up.
As George Gene Gustines reported for the Times, DC has printed 900,000 copies of the trade since the trailer debuted with The Dark Knight. The paper cites Levitz as saying that, in total; DC will have printed more than a million copies of Watchmen in 2008. "As far as we can tell from our conversations with the book industry people, there has never been a trailer that did this," Levitz told the Times. A representative from DC Comics confirmed the million copies number for Newsarama.
The trade has enjoyed a four-week run on USA Today’s bestseller list, where it has moved to #18 this week. It has also climbed as high as #2 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. Currently, the trade is at #10 on Amazon.com.
According to BookScan, which measures sales at brick-and-mortar bookstores, Watchmen sold about 100,000 copies in 2007. The trade is perennially one of the best-selling trades in the comic book direct market as well.
As Levitz told Newsarama, the numbers are busting internal DC sales projections on a weekly basis. “It’s an exciting roller coaster,” Levitz said. “I have no idea how many copies we may sell when this is all said and done. I have hopes, but we’re already achieving some of what our hopes were before, so we just keep lifting the goal numbers.”
although I wouldn't call it a distraction. I think it has a significant role in the book contributing not only in character parallels but with the beautiful flow of story in words and imagery. Page 17 of Fearful Symmetry aka CH.5 is just one example of the genius of Moore and Gibbons. Although, I can see how on the initial reading, it could be overlooked. Much of the appeal of Watchmen as a great piece of literature is its layers which do not present themselves until after multiple or very meticulous readings.
