Walmart Leads Halloween Retail Program for Genius Brands International’s Rainbow Rangers With In-Store Exclusive Nationwide

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Oct. 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Led by Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Genius Brands International, Inc. (“Genius Brands”) (NASDAQ: GNUS), a global brand management company that creates and licenses multimedia entertainment content for children, announces the nationwide launch of the first Halloween retail program for Rainbow Rangers, based on the hit original preschool series currently airing daily on Nick Jr.

Genius Brands has initiated multiple retail launches for Rainbow Rangers for Halloween, highlighted by an in-store exclusive with Walmart, available in approximately 1,200 locations nationwide. Walmart will offer, exclusively, the Floof costume from Disguise based on the popular character in Rainbow Rangers. The Company has also unveiled an assortment of Rainbow Rangers Halloween costumes and accessories from Disguise at online retailers, including Walmart, Amazon, Party City, and halloweencostumes.com. Additionally, costumes are also available in approximately 1,200 Spirit Halloween stores through a direct-to-retail program.

“The launch of the Rainbow Rangers’ Halloween program at Walmart signifies our continued growth of the brand with merchandise distribution at mass retail,” said Andy Heyward, Chairman & CEO of Genius Brands. “This is just the beginning as we work with our top-tier manufacturing and retail partners to take this special brand to the next level with 375 SKUs across a broad range of merchandise categories planned in total for distribution at market over the next 12 months.”

“In the preschool merchandising market, Halloween is a significant holiday to create product that truly engages the audience with the brand, and we are thrilled to go to market this year with our first line of Halloween costumes for Rainbow Rangers with an amazing line-up of mass brick and mortar, specialty and online retail partners such as Walmart, Spirit Halloween, Amazon, Party City, and halloweencostumes.com,” commented Lloyd Mintz, SVP, Global Consumer Products, Genius Brands.

About Rainbow Rangers

Rainbow Rangers is a rescue-based series that follows the adventures of seven girls who are Earth’s first responders, protecting people, animals, resources, and the natural beauty of our world. The series airs Monday – Friday, 3x per day, and on the weekends with a new episode premiering each Sunday.

Rainbow Rangers boasts a unique and highly-accomplished team of creators from the animated motion picture and television worlds, including Rob Minkoff (Disney’s The Lion King director), Shane Morris (Disney’s Frozen co-writer), Tim Mansfield, and New York Times Bestselling author and Emmy Award-nominated writer Elise Allen (Dinosaur Train, Lion Guard, Barbie specials), who serves as head writer and co-creator.  Multiple Emmy Award-winning director Michael Maliani directs the series, and Genius Brands' Chairman and CEO and multiple Emmy Award-winning producer, Andy Heyward, serves as executive producer.

About Genius Brands International
Headquartered in Beverly Hills, Genius Brands International, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNUS) is a leading global kids media company developing, producing, marketing, and licensing branded children's entertainment properties and consumer products for media and retail distribution. The Company's "content with a purpose" brand portfolio, which is led by award-winning creators and producers, including the all-new Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, Rainbow Rangers for Nick Jr.; Llama Llama for Netflix; award-winning toddler brand, Baby Genius; adventure comedy STEM series, Thomas Edison's Secret Lab; and financial literacy and entrepreneurship series, Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club. The Company’s content catalog also includes the animated series, Stan Lee's Cosmic Crusaders, created with Stan Lee's Pow! Entertainment. Seeing the need to provide kids and parents with a safe viewing environment that offers premium enriching and engaging programming, Genius Brands launched the Genius Brands Network – comprised of Kid Genius Cartoon Channel and Baby Genius TV, as well as an exclusive Kid Genius Cartoons Plus subscription channel on Amazon Prime. The Network channels are available in approximately 80 million U.S. households via a variety of distribution platforms, such as OTT, set-top box, internet, and mobile. Through licensing agreements with category-leading partners, characters from the Company's properties also appear on a wide range of consumer products for retail. For additional information, please visit www.gnusbrands.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain statements in this notice constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), not limited to Risk Factors relating to its patent business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

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