In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic destabilized marketing schedules in the entire entertainment industry as productions were halted and release dates pushed back due to the outbreak threatening large gatherings – especially theaters—and work environments in factories, offices, and studios—so it has its own page.
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Anime and Manga
- Due to production delays on the show itself from the pandemic, Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure suffered from this, mostly as far as merchandising goes:
- The Element Bottle for Pretty Cure Miracle Leap was released on the original date the movie was slated to be released, just days after its release was changed.
- Merchandising depicting Cure Earth was released the week the episode that introduced her was supposed to air.
- Episode 16 has a brief shot with a poster for Majo Minarai wo Sagashite, the 20th anniversary movie for Ojamajo Doremi. Had the hiatus not occurred, the episode would have aired a few days after the intended release date of said film, but both the episode and the movie were postponed to later dates that put them out of sync with each other, inadvertently changing the poster shot from a plug to a Production Foreshadowing.
- This in turn affected the next series in the franchise, as some merchandise showed up on February 6, 2021, a day before the date on which the show would have premiered had it not been for the two-month hiatus of Healin' Good.
- The fourth and final Rebuild of Evangelion film, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, was postponed from a planned release date of June 27, 2020 (eleven years to the release date of 2.0). Despite this, the film's tie-in Tamagotchi toy, the Evatchi, managed to hit stores on its intended release date of June 13th, 2020.
- Toylines and tie-in promotions for Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur and Pokémon: Secrets of the Jungle were released around the time the films were slated to originally premiere in Japan in 2020 (March for the former and July for the latter).
- Episode 32 of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, which is focused on Celebi, ends with the Celebi seen in the episode meeting up with a Shiny one. This brief cameo was supposed to be a tie-in to Secrets of the Jungle, which features a Shiny Celebi, but both the episode and the movie were pushed forward, with the episode coming out in August and the movie in December.
- The Sanrio crossover merchandise line with Ojamajo Doremi came out in May 2020, which was supposed to be the release date for the theatrical film Majo Minarai wo Sagashite.
Films — Animation
- The toyline (including the Funko Pop! figures) for Minions: The Rise of Gru was released in the summer of 2020, around the time the film was originally slated to premiere before the pandemic delayed it. The film released in summer 2022. There were also cereal boxes that offered free tickets to see the movie, as well as a McDonald's promotion. Any kids hoping to use those free tickets had to hang on to them for two years, assuming they were still valid.
- SCOOB! also had a Carl's Jr/Hardee's tie-in meant to be released around the original premiere of the movie. However, the website was updated to specify that this was an on-demand release. A number of Blue Buffalo pet food products also provided a special movie ticket offer; redeeming the offer instead gave customers a $13 dollar credit to use on VOD releases (possibly due to technical limitations, it was not restricted to specifically SCOOB).
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run:
- The film had a Wendy's promotion that was supposed to come out around the time of the original release date (May 2020), but got delayed itself until late June. The movie itself was delayed twice more, until finally settling on a straight to streaming release in early 2021 like many other animated films during that period, so the promotion still wound up being this trope.
- Several tie-in books came out around the original May release date.
- Some 7-Eleven locations in the United States ran a promotion for the film in May.
- A Pop-Tarts tie-in was released for the spring of 2020, with specially-marked boxes offering discounted tickets for the movie if you bought a certain amount between March 16 and July 31. Not only did the movie get delayed past those dates, but it cancelled its theatrical release (except in Canada and South Korea) in favor of streaming, making any ticket discounts pointless.
- Aeropostale, Spencer's and Kohl's ran SpongeBob-themed promotions ahead of the film's original May release.
- Cereal based on the movie (itself a remake of the SpongeBob cereal from the heyday of the franchise) appeared in stores in April 2020, one month before the original May release.
- Averted for the Kamp Koral mini-series that was supposed to release around July, which Channel Hopped to Paramount+ for a 2021 release (the same day as the film's U.S. release, in fact).
- The toyline for the film showed up in some stores in August 2020, tying in with the second potential release date.
- A Pixar-themed McDonald's promotion in July 2020 offering keychains of various Pixar characters in every Happy Meal included a keychain of Joe from Soul, which would have been on time with its original June 2020 release date, but the movie was first delayed to November 2020 then delayed to December 25, 2020 and sent straight to Disney+ as a result of COVID-19 messing with movie production.
- Downplayed with Raya and the Last Dragon — it was originally penciled in for the November 2020 release that Soul was initially pushed back to, dovetailing with the Christmas shopping season. When it was pushed back to a Disney+ release for March 2021, the toyline was held back until that January, hitting shelves around the time the final trailer was released.
- Vivo was originally set for a June 2021 theatrical release, but was postponed to be released on Netflix later that year. Despite this, activity books based on the movie were available in stores by June 2021.
Films — Live Action
- A Quiet Place Part II had a Bugles promotion using the original March 20, 2020 release date.
- Some Marvel comic books advertised Morbius with its original July 31, 2020 release date. The Marvel Legends Venom wave mentioned below also included a Morbius action figure, which was likely meant to cash in on what would have been the recent release of the film.
- Some merchandise made to promote Mulan, including dolls and t-shirts, came out around the original March release date; the novelization arrived about a month ahead of the rescheduled September release.
- No Time to Die was supposed to be released in April 2020, and the theme song by Billie Eilish was commercially released in mid-February, six weeks ahead of the movie, complete with a music video, televised live performances, and a karaoke version. MGM also printed popcorn bags and soft drink cups to promote the movie in theaters with its original April 2020 release. It wouldn't see release until September 30, 2021. The Funko Pop! figures were released in mid-2020 also.
- In the UK, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway-themed Cadbury Easter eggs and chocolate bars, which had "Only at cinemas" printed on the packaging, were sold for the 2020 Easter season - before being repeatedly delayed.
- The Criterion Collection's standalone Blu-ray release of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics documentary Tokyo Olympiad was meant to tie in with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed until 2021.
- Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was originally planned for a May 2020 release to coincide with the actual event's 2020 edition in Rotterdam, but its cancelation bumped the film to premiere a month later in June 2020.
- A promo for Free Guy that had some of the cast being interviewed in a serious matter as if it was an independent film and not the comedy it truly is aired in Screenvision theaters even after the release got pulled off the schedule. This was justified because this promo did not show the release date of the film.
- This was how the design for the live-action Clifford the Big Red Dog was leaked: an online image of a Carl's Jr. promotion surfaced on the Internet, tying in to the original December release.
- The chain's next promotion after this one would also be one for a movie delayed by the pandemic: Rumble.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Lots of tie-in merchandise for Black Widow, most notably clothes, action figures and the Funko Pop! figurines, were released in time for its first rescheduled date in November 2020... but very early given it wound up delayed again to July 2021. French supermarket chain Leclerc launched a Marvel Comics promotional event in November and December 2020 with collectible stickers. They were accompanied by advertising of Black Widow that said "currently in theaters".
- After having already been delayed several times, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was slated for a July 2021 release date. However, Black Widow was then pushed back to July, which bumped Shang-Chi to September. By the time this decision had been made, the film's Marvel Legends figures, Lego kits and other merchandise were already en route to retailers, meaning they showed up in stores like Target before even a single trailer had been released to the public.
- The live-action Eternals movie was initially slated to be released in November 2020, but was delayed a full year to November 2021. By the time the delay was announced, the film's Marvel Legends action figures and LEGO kits had already been completed, which led to them leaking out in December 2020 (though they wouldn't officially go up for sale until the following year).
- Special Venom-themed Marvel Legends action figures (which, in addition to the title character, featured "Venomized" versions of other Marvel heroes like Captain America, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen and Deadpool) were released in Fall 2020 to coincide with Venom: Let There Be Carnage's October release date. However, the movie was pushed back to September (later October) of the following year, ruining any sort of marketing synergy the toys were meant to achieve.
- The first trailer for OSS 117: From Africa with Love has the eponymous secret agent tell the viewers to meet up with him on February 3, 2021 (the movie's original release date). The release was moved to April 14, 2021 then to August 4 due to the lockdown of French public-welcoming businesses being prolonged way past early February.
- The Spanish edition of MasterChef Junior aired an episode with a challenge based on the movie Ghostbusters: Afterlife in January 2021, well after the movie had been pushed back from its original July 2020 release date and just before it was moved again to November 11, 2021. In the process, viewers got their first glimpse of the new ghost Muncher.
- Collector-oriented action figures for Dune appeared in Target stores in Feburary 2021, reflecting the original release date of November 20, 2020 (the US release date ended up being October 22, 2021). Prior to that, copies of the original novel with cover art drawn from the movie had appeared in bookstores. The Funko Pop! figures were also released months before the film hit theaters.
- Dune also got an unofficial tie-in with The Mockbuster Dune Drifter, which was released in December 2020 even though Dune had already been delayed to 2021.
- DC films:
- Doritos did a promotion with Wonder Woman 1984 that used the film's original June 12th, 2020 release date. A limited-time tie-in Blizzard flavor also appeared at Dairy Queen in June as well. In Brazil, the Magnum ice cream received a Wonder Woman packaging that even featured the old release date!
All the Funko Pop! figures related to the film and the tie-in DC Multiverse figures from McFarlane Toys arrived in stores that summer as well. - Though The Batman was delayed to 2022, some merchandise hit stores in early 2021, such as the Hot Wheels Batmobile toy.
- The Flash (2023):
- In January 2022, it was announced that DC would be publishing The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, an official prequel comic book mini-series that would serve as a direct lead-in to the film. Even though it was revealed just two months later that the movie had been delayed until 2023, the first issue of the comic still quietly dropped in September.
- Issue #17 of the Batman Urban Legends anthology series features several stories where Batman teams up with The Flash, Black Adam and Aquaman, respectively. The comic was obviously meant to cash in on the fact that all four characters were slated to have their own movies released in 2022, complete with WB releasing the "The World Needs Heroes" promotional video to highlight how 2022 would supposedly be a watershed year for the DCEU. However, while The Batman was released in March, Black Adam, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Flash all wound up being delayed, with the latter two films being pushed out of 2022 entirely.
- Similarly, DC released a sequel to Flashpoint (the comic the Flash movie is loosely based on) called Flashpoint Beyond in 2022, clearly intending to capitalize on what they thought would be a surge of mainstream interest in the original story following the release of the film (although it also seems to have taken former 5G plotlines and utilized it here as well as the story being a Sequel Hook into "The New Golden Age" line of comic books). However, as mentioned above, The Flash wound up being pushed back to the following year.
- Official costumes based on the updated Batsuit worn by Michael Keaton were produced for the 2022 Halloween season, obviously intending to ride the hype around the film. The costumes were still released in Fall of that year despite The Flash being pushed back to 2023, with the branding changed to imply they were instead from the original 1989 Batman movie, despite the design clearly being based on the former film (as evidenced by the armored chest and black utility belt, neither of which were present on the 89 Batsuit). Christmas ornaments depicting the Flash and Keaton's Batman were also released for the 2022 holiday shopping season.
- The comic book mini-series The New Champion of Shazam! was delayed by over six months in order to release closer to SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods. However, despite the film itself changing release dates multiple times and ultimately being pushed back to 2023, the comic was still released in Fall 2022.
- Doritos did a promotion with Wonder Woman 1984 that used the film's original June 12th, 2020 release date. A limited-time tie-in Blizzard flavor also appeared at Dairy Queen in June as well. In Brazil, the Magnum ice cream received a Wonder Woman packaging that even featured the old release date!
- Jurassic World Dominion was delayed from its original June 11, 2021 release date by over a year. However, the VelociCoaster managed to avoid being seriously impacted by COVID, and opened on July 10, 2021.
Live-Action TV
- Both Mashin Sentai Kiramager and Kamen Rider Zero-One had to take a six-week hiatus. In that time, the former's Sixth Ranger Kiramei Silver and the latter's final Super Mode Kamen Rider Zero-Two were revealed in toku magazines and merchandise started going out even though their debuts had been delayed at least a month.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was originally supposed to premiere in August 2020, but was delayed to March 2021 when the pandemic forced filming to shut down. While most of the tie-in merchandise was also delayed, a special Marvel Legends replica of the Captain America shield used in the show went up for order in Fall 2020.
Tabletop Games
- Games Workshop closed their factories in late March 2020, halting all the releases until the middle of May. The White Dwarf issues for those months came out slightly later than it was originally planned and often ended up featuring promotion for models that were supposed to come out a little before the issues, but weren't actually out. In the detail:
- The March issue (the last product released before the lockdown) features promotion of the new model of Ragnar Blackmane (which was supposed to come out on March 28th as part of the Prophecy of the Wolf boxset alongside the new Ghazghkull Thraka model, but ultimately came out in the middle of May) and the new Zoat model included in a Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress expansion that was supposed to be released on April 4th, but was ultimately pushed to June 20th.
- The April issue (that was released in time in digital format and to a few independent retailers, but was released publicly in the middle of May) mentions towards the end of the magazine Skies of Fire (an expansion for Aeronautica Imperialis featuring Tau and Astra Militarum units) as a "recent release". The actual expansion and models were released only on June 13th.
- The May issue (that was released in late June) features a full coverage on the newest army for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, the Lumineth Realmlords, featuring also rules to field them in Warcry which suggest the reader to go and buy a box of the army's basic troop to start their warband. The issue came out the same day as the limited edition boxset for the army, and the single units were released only starting from September 12th.
- Defied with the June issue (that came in the second half of August). The initial preorder listing featured a new quest for Blackstone Fortress that requires the Large Spindle Drones from the Ascension expansion. As the expansion wasn't out yet (it came out on September 5th), the article was pulled out from the final issue and moved on the October issue.
- The September issue, which is mostly dedicated to the 9th edition of Warhammer 40,000, was blatantly written as if the 9th edition Codexes for Space Marines and Necrons were already out, with multiple sidenotes that invite the reader to check them for more detail and the Index Imperialis supplement about Silver Templars being explicitly written as an expansion of the new Space Marines Codex, as it features new rules involving Core units, a new keyword that was introduced only a few days before the issue's release on a Warhammer Community article. The actual Codexes came out ony three weeks later. The issue was also planned to feature a Necromunda article with rules for Outlaw Brutes that was moved to the November issue for the same reason as the Blackstone Fortress one above, but the "Inside the Studio" section at the end of the magazine still features a box with an Ambot conversion that is referred to as being "Inspired by the contents of this month's article"... which doesn't exist.
- The November issue features a Warcry mission that involves an artifact whose rules are found in the 2020 edition of the Tome of Champions, a book whose existence wasn't even revealed until 9 days after the issue's release.
- Outside of White Dwarf, the promotional booklet released in stores for the launch of the 9th edition of Warhammer 40.000 still states that the Indomitus boxset preorders start on June 6th (with probably a release on June 20th). The preorder was actually pushed to July 11th, with the actual release on July 25th.
- Early 2021 had a slowdown of model releases due to both Covid and Brexit, creating a new slew of discrepancies between White Dwarf articles and actual releases:
- Starting from the January 2021 issue there have been articles with lore and rules that are meant to complement the contents of the War Zone: Charadon series of supplement books, the first volume of which came out only in late March (albeit they can be freely used without owning the books, as stated in the articles themselves)
- The February 2021 issue freely talks about the new Hedonites of Slaanesh models, that were supposed to come out the same day as the issue but ultimately came out only a week later.
- The March 2021 issue features strategy tips for the Warhammer Undergrounds Seraphon band, which was released only a week after the issue, and most egregiously has an article about the Warmaster Titan for Adeptus Titanicus, a model that had no announced release date when the issue came out and ultimately came out a month later.
Video Games
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was meant to tie in with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed until 2021.
- All Marvel mobile games such as Marvel Puzzle Quest and Marvel Future Fight released tie-in characters for Black Widow like Yelena Belova and Red Guardian either in April or November of 2020, both being the film's planned release dates.
- Fortnite contains a very unique example of a delayed release tie-in (for Black Widow) being successfully held back but repurposed. The Nexus War season (August 1 to December 1, 2020) was themed entirely around Marvel Comics, which included regular cosmetics drops in the game's Item Shop based on Marvel superheroes, all of whom had their powers or weapons available to players in-game via Stark Industries drones and many of whom had a location themed around them on the map. The first major update to the game after the season's release added a giant purple panther statue, signalling the arrival of Black Panther to the Item Shop. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe suddenly died, leaving Epic Games in an awkward position as to whether or not to release the cosmetics on schedule. They ultimately decided to delay it, but needed something to take its place. Even though a comic-based skin for Black Widow was previously available which may have tied in more closely with the comics-based season, Epic decided to repurpose the cosmetics already created for the Black Widow film tie-in as that week's Item Shop skin. This leaves the skin for Black Widow as the only Marvel skin that season based on the films rather than the comics, with no representation on the map or in the game mechanics.
Web Original
- Sabaton History miraculously managed to keep to its weekly release schedule throughout the pandemic until they ran out of songs in fall 2020, despite severe disruptions behind the scenes (Sabaton's Russia tour got cancelled and Pär Sundström got stuck in quarantine in Moscow, and host Indy Neidell caught the virus and had to be replaced by Spartacus Olsson for a few episodes). However, the Patreon subscriber tie-in editions of Sabaton's albums, originally planned to come out every few months, hit severe production delays from a combination of pandemic-related factory closures and label Nuclear Blast's acquisition by Believe Digital: to date only Heroes and The Last Stand have been released.
Western Animation
- The DuckTales (2017) episode "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!", an episode which parodies the James Bond franchise, was aired on the same exact day that No Time to Die was supposed to be in theaters before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it.
- The 2020 revival of Animaniacs includes an Olympics-themed episode, which would have come out after the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
- An official What If...? LEGO kit featuring an Iron Man suit cobbled together from alien scrap metal was released in Summer 2021, apparently based on a planned episode where Tony Stark would be marooned on the junkyard planet of Sakaar. The episode in question was bumped from the first season to the second, meaning the LEGO kit was released over two years too early.
