Doom 2099 Sales Figures
Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership
Filed with the United States Postal Service
During the color comics boom of the early 1990s, Marvel had several different lines running at once — including the 2099 line, which included Spider-Man 2099, Ravage 2099, and other titles showing what the Marvel universe would be like in the far future. Doom 2099 followed the exploits of a character claiming to be Doctor Doom — and lasted longer than some o the other titles.
First-issue sales were gigantic, with Capital City Distribution alone selling more than 172,000 copies — but as the crash hit, the title's numbers declined. Marvel appears to have withdrawn its newsstand distribution in 1994, and by 1996 the title's orders were a tenth or less of those for the first issue, just three years before.
—John Jackson Miller
| 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issue Statement appearing in: | #13 Jan | #27 March | #37 Jan. | ||
| Date of filing: | 10/1/93 | 10/1/94 | 10/1/95 | ||
| Issues published during year: | 12 | 12 | 12 | ||
| Annual subscription price: | $15.00 | $18.00 | $23.40 | ||
| Cover price during year: | $1.25 | $1.50 | $1.95 | ||
| Total Copies PRINTED (avg): | 385,433 | 172,975 | 42,420 | ||
| Sales through DEALERS (avg): | 294,808 | 170,242 | 38,733 | ||
| Sales by SUBSCRIPTION (avg): | 2,792 | 2,058 | 1,250 | ||
| Total PAID circulation (avg): | 296,900 | 172,300 | 39,983 | ||
| Samples by MAIL (avg): | 125 | 125 | 750 | ||
| Samples OUTSIDE mail (avg): | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total FREE circulation (avg): | 125 | 125 | 750 | ||
| TOTAL DISTRIBUTION: | 297,025 | 171,425 | 40,733 | ||
| Copies not distributed (office): | 500 | 500 | 500 | ||
| Copies not distributed (RETURNS): | 87,908 | 0 | 1,187 | ||
| Reported % Paid/Requested: | 99.0% | 99.0% | |||
| % of RUN RETURNED: | 22.8% | .0% | 2.8% | ||
| Copies existent: | 298,225 | 172,925 | 41,233 | ||
| SELL-THROUGH at RETAIL: | 77.0% | 99.6% | 94.3% | ||
Statement history
Marvel began publishing statements rather early, in the thirteenth issue of this series. The average for the first year thus captures the first issue, which had extremely high sales (perhaps over half an million copies). Newsstand sales appear to stop in the 1994 report, although small sales are reported in 1995. The series folded before 1996 sales could be reported.
Understanding Statements of Ownership
The figures above are taken directly from the annual Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation filed by publishers with the United States Postal Service. The sales figure is the Average Paid Circulation figure and includes all copies sold through newsstands, comics shops, and postal subscription. It does not count copies the publisher gave away for free, or copies that were kept for office use.
More information can be found in the FAQ section.
