The movie “Barbie” with Margot Robbie in the lead role as the toy doll has brought in billions of revenue at the cinemas. It may seem obvious that the company Mattel should be able to ride the Barbie wave.
That’s not the case — not yet. Interim figures for Mattel were released last week. Although they were better than market expectations, they still showed a sales decline of twelve percent during the second quarter.
The Barbie brand was one of the toy categories whose sales actually declined, but CEO Ynon Kreiz coldly expects an effect later on.
— We expect Barbie to show growth in the second half of the year and develop well, Kreiz said in connection with the interim report.
The pandemic haunts
Mattel is one of the world’s largest toy companies. Just like competitor Hasbro, the company has struggled with the consequences of the covid pandemic. Then, when many countries chose to completely shut down, parents bought large quantities of toys for their children to keep them busy. Now that the pandemic is no longer a factor, Mattel is sitting with large inventories. Add to that a greater hesitation from consumers when inflationary pressure has become increasingly heavy.
A question mark now is whether the sales lift will really happen, whether the movie and the toy dolls really have the same target audience? While the Barbie film has a seven-year age limit in, for example, Sweden, the age limit is 13 years and older in the United States. It is hardly the target group that plays with Barbie dolls.
Several films in the works
However, Mattel and CEO Kreiz are optimistic and some product launches have been deliberately delayed to be able to go on sale in the third quarter of the year, after the film’s premiere.
The company also has plans for how other toys will be portrayed on the screen, among them the purple dinosaur “Barney” and “Polly Pocket” where Lily Collins is supposed to step into the main role as a doll.