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Wonder Woman Vol. 2 Sales Figures

Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership
Filed with the United States Postal Service

Created by William Moulton Marston in All Star Comics #8, Wonder Woman got her own series in 1942 — a title that would run for more than four decades. The title's first postal circulation data appears in 1960, when the book was shipping eight issues a year; 210,000 copies of each issue sold on average. That number makes it a lower-tier superhero book at DC in 1960, but a mid-range seller for the industry overall.

The title's circulation remained steady through the early 1960s, but suffered in the second half of the decade as DC cut its frequency to bimonthly. Sales improved slightly heading into the middle of the 1970s, with an ABC Wonder Woman TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby appearing in 1974. The successor television series, starring Lynda Carter, ran on ABC and then CBS from 1975 to 1979 and coincided with DC making the title monthly.

Initially, the doubling of frequency appears to have harmed sales, coming as it did during the greatest inflationary decade in comics history; it took until 1979 for the title to recover, eventually getting back to where it was in 1971 (but now selling twice as many copies annually). As with Batman, Archie, The Incredible Hulk, and other series that had seen boosts due to television shows, however, sales trailed off following small-screen cancellation. By the final year of the postal data available for the series, 1984, the title was down to 52,145 copies a month.

The mid-1980s, however, were a growth period for comics in the burgeoning Direct Market, and DC, coming off Crisis in Infinite Earths, embarked on a wave of relaunches and renumberings. Wonder Woman left shelves at the end of 1985, returning with a new #1 at the end of 1986. Early sales were strong, according to postal data for Wonder Woman Vol. 2; the sucessor series ran for nearly two decades.

After a third renumbering in 2006, the title briefly returned to its original legacy numbering, fusing the three titles — before ending again in the DC "New 52" relaunch of 2011. A fifth relaunch came as part of DC Rebirth in 2016. Some direct-market only information for those later titles is available in the monthly reports.

—John Jackson Miller


 

19601961196219631964
Issue Statement appearing in:#120 Feb.#128 Feb.#136 Feb.#144 Feb.#153 April
Date of filing:10/1/6010/1/6110/1/6210/1/6310/1/64
Issues published during year:88888
Annual subscription price:$1.00$1.15$1.15$1.15$1.15
Cover price during year:$0.10$0.12$0.12$0.12$0.12
Total Copies PRINTED (avg):
Sales through DEALERS (avg):
Sales by SUBSCRIPTION (avg):
Total PAID circulation (avg):213,000230,000215,000no data publishedno data published
Samples by MAIL (avg):
Samples OUTSIDE mail (avg):
Total FREE circulation (avg):
TOTAL DISTRIBUTION:
Copies not distributed (office):
Copies not distributed (RETURNS):
Reported % Paid/Requested:
% of RUN RETURNED:
Copies existent:
SELL-THROUGH at RETAIL:
19651966196719681969
Issue Statement appearing in:#163 July#168 Feb.#175 April#181 April#187 April
Date of filing:10/1/6510/1/6610/1/6710/1/6810/1/69
Issues published during year:86666
Annual subscription price:$1.15$0.88$0.88$0.88no subs
Cover price during year:$0.12$0.12$0.12$0.12$0.15
Total Copies PRINTED (avg):346,000368,000333,000302,000323,000
Sales through DEALERS (avg):209,000219,000174,000166,000171,000
Sales by SUBSCRIPTION (avg):9181,1681,000365197
Total PAID circulation (avg):209,918220,168175,000166,365171,197
Samples by MAIL (avg):142330340386346
Samples OUTSIDE mail (avg):00000
Total FREE circulation (avg):142330340386346
TOTAL DISTRIBUTION:210,060220,498175,340168,751171,543
Copies not distributed (office):
Copies not distributed (RETURNS):135,940147,502157,660133,249151,457
Reported % Paid/Requested:
% of RUN RETURNED:39.3%40.1%47.3%44.1%46.9%
Copies existent:210,060220,498175,340166,751171,543
SELL-THROUGH at RETAIL:60.7%59.8%52.6%55.1%53.0%
19701971197219731974
Issue Statement appearing in:#193 April#199 April#205 March/April#211 April/May#218 July
Date of filing:10/1/7010/1/7110/1/7210/1/7310/1/74
Issues published during year:66666
Annual subscription price:no subs$2.00$3.00$3.00$1.50
Cover price during year:$0.15$0.20$0.20$0.20$0.25
Total Copies PRINTED (avg):325,594302,500281,000313,000332,820
Sales through DEALERS (avg):172,356159,263133,705145,064148,333
Sales by SUBSCRIPTION (avg):18002137171,584
Total PAID circulation (avg):172,536159,263133,918145,771149,917
Samples by MAIL (avg):1220523100100
Samples OUTSIDE mail (avg):00000
Total FREE circulation (avg):1220523100100
TOTAL DISTRIBUTION:172,658159,263134,441145,871150,017
Copies not distributed (office):3345501,420330
Copies not distributed (RETURNS):152,936142,903146,009164,709179,500
Reported % Paid/Requested:
% of RUN RETURNED:47.0%47.2%52.0%52.6%53.9%
Copies existent:172,658159,597134,991147,301150,347
SELL-THROUGH at RETAIL:53.0%52.6%47.7%46.6%45.0%
19751976197719781979
Issue Statement appearing in:#224 July#231 May#243 May#254 April#266 April
Date of filing:10/1/7510/1/7610/1/7710/1/7810/1/79
Issues published during year:66121212
Annual subscription price:$1.50$1.80$5.00$6.75$6.75
Cover price during year:$0.30$0.30$0.35$0.40$0.40
Total Copies PRINTED (avg):309,000350,000350,899365,609315,148
Sales through DEALERS (avg):148,000147,000149,235122,814157,763
Sales by SUBSCRIPTION (avg):2,0003,0002,7191,482915
Total PAID circulation (avg):150,000150,000151,954124,296158,678
Samples by MAIL (avg):1,0001,0004001110
Samples OUTSIDE mail (avg):00000
Total FREE circulation (avg):1,0001,0004001110
TOTAL DISTRIBUTION:151,000151,000152,354124,407158,678
Copies not distributed (office):6,00002,1032,789122
Copies not distributed (RETURNS):152,000199,000196,442238,413156,348
Reported % Paid/Requested:
% of RUN RETURNED:49.2%56.9%56.0%65.2%49.6%
Copies existent:157,000151,000154,457127,196158,800
SELL-THROUGH at RETAIL:48.5%42.9%43.3%34.0%50.4%
19801981198219831984
Issue Statement appearing in:#279 May#291 May#303 May#314 April#325 Feb.
Date of filing:10/1/8010/1/8110/1/8210/1/8310/1/84
Issues published during year:1212121212
Annual subscription price:$7.95$7.20$7.20$9.00$9.00
Cover price during year:$0.50$0.60$0.60$0.60$0.75
Total Copies PRINTED (avg):259,039230,591242,052216,401172,868
Sales through DEALERS (avg):93,45382,20294,60572,10651,001
Sales by SUBSCRIPTION (avg):1,4481,5941,5931,1501,144
Total PAID circulation (avg):94,90183,79696,19873,25652,145
Samples by MAIL (avg):127127677772261
Samples OUTSIDE mail (avg):00000
Total FREE circulation (avg):127127677772261
TOTAL DISTRIBUTION:95,02883,92396,87574,02852,406
Copies not distributed (office):3,1452,8952,2531,2192,256
Copies not distributed (RETURNS):160,866143,773142,924141,154118,206
Reported % Paid/Requested:
% of RUN RETURNED:62.1%62.3%59.0%65.2%68.4%
Copies existent:98,17386,81899,12875,24754,662
SELL-THROUGH at RETAIL:36.6%36.3%39.7%33.9%30.2%




Statement history
Wonder Woman had run Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation for years before the postal rules changed in 1960, requiring DC to publish its average circulation numbers. Another raft of rules changes in 1963 appears to have confused several publishers, including DC which ran forms without data in 1963 and 1964 for many titles, before returning to compliance in 1965. DC stopped offering subscriptions in 1969 and 1970, but continued filing the forms for the subscribers it still had. Because DC started the 1986 series on a new postal license (in part because there was a one-year gap), no report exists showing what DC would have sold of its 1985 issues of this series.

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.


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