In March 2019, distributor[78] Fox Searchlight's parent company 21st Century Fox was acquired by Disney. As Jojo Rabbit featured mature themes, several Disney executives worried that releasing the film would ruin their reputation as a family-friendly studio; it was also said to be "too edgy" for Disney, as stated in Variety. However, they remained optimistic about the film's success,[79] with CEOs Bob Iger and Alan Horn arguing that it has a good message and would diversify their scope.[80]
To market the film, Fox Searchlight released a scene from the German World War II film Downfall, which had been a popular asset for memes, wherein subtitles would mistranslate the dialogue to something humorous, mostly known as the Angry Hitler meme. In the Jojo Rabbit version, Hitler is driven insane with the news of Waititi, a Polynesian Jew, creating a film poking fun at Hitler.[81] Additionally, a teaser was released on July 24, 2019,[82] and a trailer was released on September 3, 2019.[83] Smith Brothers Media was in charge of making visual advertisements, including posters and web banners, primarily for Australia. Due to the film's quirky nature, a "vibrant" theme was chosen to "make the character images 'pop' for potential audiences."[84] The poster was unveiled on September 5.[85]
Jojo Rabbit had its world premiere at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2019.[86] It also screened at festivals at Austin,[87][88] San Diego,[89][90] Chicago,[91] Philadelphia,[92] Hawaii,[93] New Orleans,[94] Chapel Hill,[95] Middleburg,[96] Tokyo,[97] and the United Kingdom.[98] It was also the closing film for the 30th Stockholm International Film Festival on November 16, 2019, which was also the film's Nordic premiere.[99] The film was theatrically released in the United States on October 18, 2019, opening in several cities before expanding in the following weeks. By November 8, 2019, it was playing in 798 theaters in the U.S.[100][101] Jojo Rabbit was released in New Zealand on 24 October 2019.[102] In other countries, it was released within the vicinity of January and February 2020.[103] In the United States, it remained in theaters for around 70 weeks and was last screened on March 19, 2020.[78] A scheduled theatrical release of Jojo Rabbit in China of February 12, 2020 was confirmed, following restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be postponed, alongside various other films by the National Arthouse Alliance of Cinemas (the film's distributor).[104] It later saw a limited release from July 31 to August 27, 2020.[105]
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film as a digital download on February 4, 2020, and on DVD and Blu-ray disc formats in the United States on February 18.[106] In international territories, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.[107] The Blu-ray release contains several special features, including three deleted scenes ("Imaginary Göring",[e] "Little Piggies",[f] "Adolf Dies Again"[g]), outtakes, a featurette titled "Inside Jojo Rabbit", an audio commentary, and two of the film's trailers.[106] The film was later released on Hotstar,[108] HBO Max,[109] Sky Cinema, Now TV,[110] and Hulu.[111] It was also released on Disney+'s Star sub-brand on February 23, 2021.[112]
