While Halloween is more than three months away, retailers are buying into a broader selection of IP, adding more female, streaming and gaming characters and reducing their reliance on tent pole films and TV series.

It’s a shift that is occurring more broadly across the licensing business as films, with sometimes fluid release dates, become less a standard bearer for the business. And while box office hits will continue to drive sales – the Barbie movie slated for release July 21 will undoubtedly find its way into Halloween costumes – they’re no longer the main focus.

For example, while Walmart and Target are both expected to carry Jazwares’ costumes based on the female Shuri and Riki Williams/Ironheart characters from 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever film, they will be matched by those from Disguise’s licensed horror/gaming products based on MiniToon’s “Piggy,” Mob Entertainment’s “Poppy Playtime” and Joey Drew Studios’ “Bendy and the Ink Machine”. NECA’s Rubie’s Division is readying costumes for the “Wednesday” streaming series, while Jazwares will likely add characters from developers’ games for Roblox as part of its DevSeries with the platform. The new introductions come as the Halloween business is forecast to increase slightly from $10.6 billion sales in 2022.

“The Halloween business is being extended to be inclusive of genders and categories in making sure there is the full character offering from baby to adult,” said Michael Esposito, Senior Director of Sales at Jazwares, which also has licenses for MGA Entertainment’s Rainbow High and Shadow High, a portion of which is split with Disguise. “It’s not as much focused on films anymore.”

As evidence of the expansion, Disguise will continue with a dual license program for masks featuring Funko’s Pop! figure design and character-based IP. These include a Michael Myers mask that will be sold in limited quantities (1,000 units) at next week’s Comic Con as well those featuring Sally and Jack characters from Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman and Wonder Woman and others. The dual-licensed masks carry a higher retail price ($20) than standard versions ($12-$15). Jazwares also will cross-merchandise some toys with pre-school costumes.

At popup Halloween specialty chains like Spirit Halloween (1,500 stores, up from 1,450 a year ago) And Party City’s Halloween City (149), the emphasis will continue to be on licensed DTR costumes that account for a large majority of their sales. There are some exceptions with Disguise supplying Nintendo, Minecraft and Pokémon costumes to Spirit and Jazwares providing Marvel and Star Wars. Fun World is providing distribution to other retailers for Spirit DTRs such as Fortnight costumes. Spirit will have a store locator up on its website on July 24 in advance of the start of store openings on July 29.

Along with the retail strategy, there will be continued lines of gender neutral and wheelchair costumes, but with slightly less emphasis. Disguise, which has championed costumes for wheelchairs, will add them for adults this year and has added Velcro attachments for strollers and wagons, said Tara Cortner, President and General Manager at Disguise. It also is adding the Pokémon license for wheelchairs.

“Gender neutral costumes are still relevant and important, and our gaming brands lend themselves very well to unisex costume designs that will continue to expand” Cortner said. “Both adaptive and gender neutral costumes are a positive focus for out company when we look to diversity and inclusivity, and we want the majority of our licenses represented in these important segments