Mattel is hoping that the 'Barbie' movie is the start of a new box-office empire. Meanwhile, Hasbro is re-launching Furby.
- The current priorities of rival toymakers Mattel and Hasbro seem quite disparate.
- Mattel is betting big on Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie and planning a slew of other toy movies in its wake.
We're on the precipice of the "Barbie" movie finally hitting theaters after the marketing campaign to end all marketing campaigns.
The ubiquitous doll is a Mattel property, and Greta Gerwig's film is expected to bring in a whopping $80 to $100 million on its opening weekend, according to Deadline. This is good news for Mattel, which has been seeing rising stock value over the last month. And if the movie grosses worldwide what some analysts believe it will, that'll be a huge boon for the toy maker.
Mattel Films, the company's film division, launched in 2018, but Gerwig's film, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, is the first movie to come out of it. A New Yorker article suggests that there are a total of 45 movies in development based on Mattel IP, with 17 of them announced so far.
When Mattel Films first launched, CNBC reporter Sarah Whitten billed the move as Mattel "taking a page from Hasbro's playbook" at a time when Mattel was seeing flagging sales on the heels of Toys R Us liquidating, and its rival Hasbro was doing significantly better.
"Mattel is home to one of the world's greatest portfolios of beloved franchises, and the creation of Mattel Films will allow us to unlock significant value across our IP," CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a statement at the time.
Ironically, things have flipped, and the tides have seemingly turned for Mattel and Hasbro.
Linda Bolton Weiser, a senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson, said on Yahoo Finance in January that Mattel had gone through "a turnaround and restructuring a few years ago and is generally in much better health right now" than its counterpart. In November, Hasbro announced that it had put its film and TV business Entertainment One up for sale, less than three years after acquiring it. At the time, sources told Deadline that Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, who'd been elevated to the position after the death of former CEO Brian Goldner, didn't "have interest in anything that doesn't sell toys directly" and was deprioritizing Goldner's aim of getting Hasbro in good with Hollywood.
Now, apparently, Hasbro is prioritizing re-launching Furby, the iconic yet deeply annoying toy of many a millennial's childhood. The company is also reportedly prioritizing gaming like Magic The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons.
It'll be interesting to see, in a few years' time, whether Mattel's bet on Hollywood or Hasbro's bet on gaming (and Furby) pans out better. Or if they'll just combine forces and merge officially, as has been rumored for years.