The East Coast’s largest comics convention just celebrated its 20th Anniversary over the weekend. Hundreds of thousands of pop culture and comic enthusiasts and others flocked to the Javits Center to attend New York Comic Con between October 8 and October 11. The event featured over 500 creators, 650+ exhibitors, panels, and more, celebrating and showcasing the best of the industry and exciting new projects people can expect in the future.
“I never thought I would be here 20 years later, running this great division, and I never thought that we would be at 250,000 people and going strong at this point,” said ReedPop Senior Vice President Marie Browne to Variety. “I had full faith that it would be successful, but it’s really exceeded all expectations.”
To celebrate the anniversary, the convention’s organizer, ReedPop, partnered with Coney Island, expanded cosplay areas, and reduced ticket prices to make NYCC more accessible to New York residents. What originally started as a strictly comic-centric convention in 2006, with 33,000 attendees, ballooned to over 250,000 people across its four-day schedule, with rumors of it expanding to five days next year. Today, NYCC has far exceeded its comic roots, and while those still hold strong, NYCC has become a convention that involves almost the entire entertainment industry, from film, television, video games, and more.
The convention has also been a great boon to the local economy, generating an estimated $90.8 million for the city. NYCC’s reputation only seems to be gaining even more importance as time goes on, not just for companies to talk about their latest releases but as a hub for fans to come together.
