They sell more than 500k is already a success.
They could sell until 1 million will give it greenlight to continue the story even expand it.
If they sell only 200k, then it's a flop.
As long as those Japanese but it, naruto will still exist.
While I agree that there's people who left this manga, there's still many who follow it. 900k is big.
....*siiiiigh* rocci you are not getting what the problem is with those numbers. Remember Naruto was SJ and SP big international seller for years. While those numbers are good for any regular manga. Naruto is not any regular manga. And the expectation the companies have put on this sequel are not the same as any regular manga. It is again SP and SJ big international money maker they want huge profits not "decent." While 900 k would be good for any regular manga is it not good enough for what those companies want.
But lets look at first week volume numbers:
Volume 71 sold 1.1 million so this was the number of fans kishi was able to keep buying the volumes by the end of the series. Of course these are the Japanese volumes and what they really want are the international sells. But what we saw for the last I wouldn't hold my breath if i were them.
Volume 72 sold about 900k so he lost 200k consumers (at the very least). Which you apparently think is a good thing? Also this was at the very early stage of the Year of the decline of Naruto. From what I understand people have been increasingly sick of Naruto the longer they tried keeping it in the public eye. Also this was the final volume this Naruto should see some of it biggest sales in years. Instead it couldn't beat a volume about the fight with kaguya. Which most people complained about.
The gaiden's volume sold 600k. So they lost another 300k which again you say is a good thing. Now this one is the one we should use as the base for the sequel instead of Volume 72. Since this one is about the next gen and introduces us to one of the characters.
So really this sequel starts off with about 600k fans (assuming more haven't left since the gaiden) in Japan. Now for any regular manga that is a tolerable number. And again this isn't any random manga. This is SP, and one SJ biggest sellers they want millions not mere thousands. Now let ignore the Bolt movie since it really got a large part of it money from SNS baiting. 600k people are still loyal, and interest enough to still buy the manga in Japan. What is the first thing the pedophile does? In fact the very thing to show us the he is taking the reins of the sequel. That poster. All it has done as far as i heard is pissed off the SS fan base. Which is one of the largest fanbases let that still support the ending. That. Is Not. A good thing.
I believe this: Boruto won't sell that great due to the names. It's only matter of how much prestige the title "supervisor" has over people.
What i really hopes happen is that readers get a very clear impression that the supervisor isn't really supervising and is too busy with his own manga. Since the reason he was given the role of supervising the sequel was to assure fans that he still keeping an eye on the series. If it clearly not the case maybe they'll become increasingly disinterested with the sequel over time.
Edited by Bail o' Lies, 24 December 2015 - 01:23 PM.