Why Can't Comics Capitalize on Film Success?

[Metallx]

It seems we have entered a golden age of comic movie success. Properties such as Spiderman, Batman, Hellboy, Iron Man, etc, are routinely becoming blockbusters or at least performing well above expectations. This leads me to think that their concepts are at least mainstream or adult enough that audiences are willing to spend $12 a ticket to watch, at times repeatedly. Why has this not translated to a spike in comic sales? Why are comics still viewed as silly? Why can't the big industries seem capable of building on their movie success. How should they take advantage of their cinema success?

 

[Metallx]

It looks like comics are again down from this point last year for a 5th straight month. Can this all be due to a bad economy?

 

[Da_Lycan]

alot of people who watch the movies have never picked up a comic in their life. hell i know ive never read a batman or hellboy comic before but i saw all the movies. they may know the character from cartoons, video games, or just from the name being popular. others could be old people who used to read the comics back in the day but stopped a long time ago and are now excited to see they childhood heroes on the big screen. theres alot of different people that see these movies and not just comic book readers. Also people who do read comics alot of them i know just wait till the tpb comes out so they can get the full story at once. i do the same with the ultimate comics and some of the lesser popular character books.

 

[Manic]

Movies seem to do wonders for graphic novels. Wanted caused the sales of its graphic novel to increase slightly, despite them having almost nothing in common. The Watchmen trailer alone has made the graphic novel nearly impossible to find in stores. I also imagine Frank Miller's 300 and Sin City books saw jumps in sales over the recent years.

People seem to have no problem reading a finite comic that a movie was based on, but where do the Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, and X-Men movie-goers turn? There are tons of trades for those franchises.

 

[Anubis]

The general public doesn't really read. Just cuz they liked the movies doesn't mean somebodies gonna buy the comics. Some do, but most can't be bothered to even read signs like, Keep Out. High Voltage. And Beware of Dog, much less a comic book. In short, people are idiots

 

[Manic]

This is true. I have a friend who loves Spider-Man. He watched the cartoon in the 90s, owns all 3 movies on DVD, and even had Spider-Man shirts and wristbands he wore all the time.

I can't get him to pick up a comic book, though.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

I quit reading weekly comics years ago (I got sick of tracking stories between multiple series), but I still pick up graphic novels every now and then. I read "Marvel: Civil War" not long ago, and thought its concept was interesting.