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Teaser poster for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
This is the first of a three-part series. Check back here tomorrow for part 2.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra just completed its second week. According to Box Office Mojo, it dropped to second place in ticket receipts and dropped almost 60% in sales from its first weekend. The Rise of Cobra is ostensibly based on the toy line created by Hasbro. But most older comic book fans know that the toy line and the Marvel comic book were essentially created together, and characters created for one medium crossed over to the other.
So it might be a good time to re-assess how movies based on comic books impact the sales of the comic books they were based on.
In short, they don’t.
Dating all the way back to the Tim Burton Batman movie in the 80s, comic book fans and retailers have waited for an increase in sales that never seem to materialize. Take a look at X-Men Origins: Wolverine from earlier this year. Wolverine is one of Marvel’s top two or three characters. There are no less than four ongoing monthly titles with "Wolverine" in the title. One of them, Wolverine: Weapon X, was released along with the premiere of the movie. Of the others, Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, and Wolverine: First Class, there’s not one of them that had higher sales than they did six months ago. You’d think that, with a movie the size of X-Men Origins: Wolverine would drive sales to the comic books. But it doesn’t. There may be a spike on the month of the movies release. But movies don’t increase comic book sales for more than a month or two at most.
But the question remains: why? Movie ticket sales drive up sales with any other medium inspired by it: movies based on books sell books. Movies that are sequels sell the DVDs of previous movies. So why aren’t these movies that make hundreds of millions dollars making more of a dent in the sales of the comic books that inspire them?
Tomorrow, in part 2, we discuss some of the basic issues in adapting comic book properties to film.
For another take on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, click here.
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Comments
Well of course, part of the problem is that people are too lazy to read. But I'm assuming you're looking to discuss the more specific reasons that he general public doesn't try comics.
Oh- but for the record, I can't imagine a movie starring Marlon Wayans increasing the sales of anything but Pepto Bismol.
One reason might be that whoever's in charge of these things doesn't budget anything significant in the way of cross-promotion. I can't even recall how many times I've been in Barnes & Noble or Borders and seen dedicated store displays and book covers touting a regular paperback's connection with a movie. I can, however, recall exactly how many times I've noticed a comic/graphic novel receive the same treatment in a big chain bookstore: zero.
Marvel and DC are in no hurry to market comic books beyond the limited niche market they already have. The films, to put it simply, just make more money. They have no incentive to push comic sales any more then they already do.
Actually, the Batman movie did coincide with the beginning of the biggest sales boom in the history of comics. It wasn't the main factor by any means, but it was a major contributor in the beginning. More on the history the Comichron.com essay on "Batman at 20 and How Comics Movies Affect Comics Sales."
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