DC and Marvel Announce Price Drops for 2011

DC Comics announced yesterday that they will be dropping the price of many of their $3.99 titles to $2.99 for the 2011 publishing schedule. Jim Lee and Dan DiDio announced the move as part of a strategy to address the current economic climate and provide better value to the customer. Over-sized comics, such as annuals and other one-shot issues, will still remain at $3.99 due to their larger size, but standard 32 page monthly issues will be reduced to $2.99.

Dan DiDio released the following comment via The Source

“As Co-Publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive. Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they’d collected for years.” said Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publisher. “We needed a progressive pricing strategy that supports our existing business model and, more importantly, allows this creative industry to thrive for years to come. With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point.”

Marvel Comics responded less than an hour later with a similar announcement. As part of the ICv2 panel, Marvel SVP of Sales and Circulation David Gabriel announced that new Marvel titles launching in 2011 will be released at the $2.99 price point. He cites the gain in popularity of digital comics as being the reason why the publisher can afford to reduce the price of new titles.

An example of this is the same-day digital release of Ultimate Comics Thor #1. Gabriel stated,

"We found that in a week's time, the download of the day-and-date comics were a little bit less than what Midtown orders. They're one of the top retailers in the country, so it gives you an idea of where we're at."

Marvel has not provided details as to how widespread their price drop will be, but this topic is sure to be discussed during the panels at NYCC.