In addition to losing its Europe sales and the impact of having its specialty retail channel shut down for at least half of Q2 in the U.S., the company is shifting its movie releases to match new release dates. In some cases those are set for later in 2020, in other cases in 2021. Manufacturing is being delayed for some products; for products that were already produced when studios began delaying movies, Funko will warehouse the goods until the appropriate release dates.
On the plus side, Funko revealed that one of its mass channel accounts plans to expand its space for Funko products 20% later this year. Funko has also been working on expanding its sales of evergreen properties to make it less dependent on new media releases, and had 58% of its sales in evergreen properties in Q1, Mariotti said in the call.
Funko is planning big increases in its game line in the second half of 2020, with "dozens" of new games planned, including new Funkoverse titles, new licensed, and new non-licensed board games. A "battle-inspired" game that mixes cooperative play in micro collectibles for a younger demographic will be launched late in Q2.
Funko’s top 10 properties in Q1 were:
- Star Wars Classic
- Pokemon
- Mandalorian
- Avengers: Endgame
- Harry Potter
- Naruto
- DC Comics
- Maximum Venom
- Dragon Ball Z
- Fortnite