March 16--For all the focus on costumes, comics and celebrities, C2E2 -- the Chicago Comic Entertainment Expo -- is also big business.
Pop culture conventions across the country have been growing in size and number. And while C2E2, kicking off its seventh year at McCormick Place on Friday, is still far smaller than the country's biggest shows, it's growing fast, with both attendance and exhibitor numbers on the rise, said event director Mike Armstrong.
C2E2 drew 71,000 fans last year, Armstrong said. That's well short of events like Comic-Con International: San Diego, which typically draws about 130,000, and New York Comic Con, with more than 160,000 attendees. ReedPOP, the company behind C2E2, also puts on New York Comic Con.
Even with a solid lineup of guests, C2E2 had a "rough" first year, Armstrong said. Attendance at the time was reported at around 27,500.
"It's hard bringing a new show to a new city as a new brand no one has heard of," he said.
Armstrong said it took three years for the Chicago event to turn a profit. He declined to comment on the show's revenues today but said ReedPOP is seeing "sustained growth."
Revenues are fairly evenly split between ticket sales, sponsorships and lease of exhibition space to artists and vendors, he said.
Some exhibitors make the rounds of conventions across the country, but others, like Chicago Costume, are local.
"For us, it started as something to do in our off-season," said general manager Courtland Hickey. "We found it was a great way to connect with people, and it's morphed into this giant consumer event."
Chicago Costume sells smaller accessories, like masks and capes, to people who didn't come in costume or forgot a crucial item, Hickey said. But the C2E2 crowd is also more likely to buy big-ticket collector items that might have sat untouched in the shop for years, like a $600 version of "Lord of the Rings" villain Sauron's helmet or $90 Captain America shields.
Local comic shop owners said the impact on their businesses is more mixed. Both Challengers Comics Conversation and Chicago Comics owners said they no longer exhibit at C2E2 because they don't have the staff to cover both the convention booth and their stores.
Challengers Comics does see more customers when C2E2 tickets are on sale at its store, said co-owner W. Dal Bush. At Chicago Comics, owner Eric Kirsammer said they get some extra visits from dealers and out-of-town visitors leading up to C2E2.
"But the weekend of, we expect a ghost town," Bush said.
It's hard to estimate just how much spending C2E2 drives. Choose Chicago spokeswoman Meghan Risch said the organization no longer estimates the economic impact of public shows such as C2E2 because the audience differs from that of a traditional conference or trade show.
Choose Chicago rarely gets data on final attendance at public events, Risch said. The organization also typically doesn't know how many tickets go to out-of-town visitors versus locals who may not spend any more in the city during an event like C2E2 than they would in a typical weekend.
About 40 percent of C2E2's attendees come from outside Illinois, though most are from neighboring Midwest states, Armstrong said.
