After the overrated Barbie movie, Mattel reportedly needs a new live action "hero" in the form of Masters of the Universe

About 3 years after the woke Barbie movie that regrettably grossed a billion dollars at the box office because of cunning concealment of its political messaging, the UK Times (archive link) reports on how Mattel toy corporation is banking this time on a live action adaptation of their Masters of the Universe toy line, which saw animated cartoon adaptations in the mid-80s and early 90s. At this point, it's starting to become rather comedic how Hollywood relies on toy merchandise as a wellspring, but anyway, let's see what they say here:

The summer of 2023 marked a high point in the 81-year history of Mattel, a global toymaker based in El Segundo, near Los Angeles. The release of the Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie, captured the global imagination, propelling Mattel and its flagship doll into the centre of the cultural zeitgeist.

For Ynon Kreiz, whose role as chief executive of Mattel was parodied by Will Ferrell in the film, it looked like a mission accomplished. After starting his role in 2018, Kreiz wanted to transform the image of his company from toy manufacturer to intellectual property (IP) powerhouse.

Now what does this mean? He's okay with making himself look bad, considering the film was a blatant attack on "sexualized capitalism", as per the ludicrous viewpoint of its director? Naturally, they won't get into details about how "imaginative" the film actually was, based on the politics it built on.

But three years on from the release of Barbie, it’s not clear that investors have recognised this shift, and now one activist investor in the Nasdaq-listed business is calling for Mattel to be taken private.

Over the past year or so, Donald Trump’s tariffs regime and other international trade concerns have knocked about a quarter off Mattel’s market value, now just over $4 billion (£3 billion). The toy market has traditionally been heavily dependent on its supply chain in China and the Far East, after all.

“We believe the market is not valuing the progress we’ve made, and more importantly the future potential of where we’re going,” said Kreiz over coffee in a London hotel.

Sounds like here, they're making a predictable swipe at Trump over his wish that businesses stop relying heavily on foreign countries to do the work, rather than USA citizens at home. Very unimpressive.

This week, he hopes the release of his second major Mattel movie — Masters of the Universe, made with Amazon MGM and filmed primarily in Sky Studios Elstree — will solidify his company’s entertainment credentials.

Masters of the Universe, starring Nicholas Galitzine, will be followed this autumn by Matchbox the Movie in October, and from there Mattel has more than a dozen other films in the works, incorporating Barney, Bob the Builder and Polly Pocket. And meanwhile, the company has invested big in making mobile games built on some of its other assets, such as Hot Wheels and Uno.

“We evolved from being a manufacturing company to an IP company — now we’re very much about brand management,” said Kreiz. “Which means it’s toys and entertainment managed together.”

Maybe that's the problem - they're making too big a deal out of adapting almost everything to film, and TV. It's honestly silly by now.

I met Kreiz the morning after the Masters of the Universe premiere in London’s Leicester Square. “People think it’s another superhero movie, but it’s so much more,” he gushed, referencing its humour and emotion.

Those that remember the original cartoon from the 1980s might raise an eyebrow at this. But those same people might equally have been sceptical about how Barbie could be turned into a Hollywood success.

The problem there is that Warner Brothers, as the studio in charge of that film, cunningly concealed how woke it sadly was. Yet according to Danusha Goska at Front Page, nobody laughed or applauded at the screening she attended. So artistically speaking, it's not like it was that kind of success, though it obviously means nothing to the profiteers who bankrolled it. Now, based on such a shoddy tale's box office grosses, they're following it up with the MOTU live action adaptation, the 2nd of its kind ever since nearly 40 years ago, another was produced in 1987, and there's something very bizarre told here:

So can He-Man, Skeletor and the other characters in the movie have the same cultural impact as Barbie? “In terms of the box office, not every movie will be the next Barbie,” said Kreiz, suggesting the answer is a firm no. “But it doesn’t need to achieve the same box office performance to have a real impact and resonance in culture.”

Nor, he added, is the box office all-important for Mattel. “We expect to see much more toy sales from this movie relative to the Barbie movie,” he said.

Why? Kreiz explained that Barbie was not “toyetic” — industry jargon meaning that it did not prompt significant new doll sales. Masters of the Universe was “not designed to sell toys” but, given the superhero nature of the film and the number of characters, it is by comparison “very toyetic”, said Kreiz.

While on-screen entertainment may play a big role in the future of Mattel, for now its major revenue source remains the physical toy market. Kreiz’s business was a victim of Trump’s tariffs regime, which disrupted and caused confusion for all US businesses that rely on international imports and exports.

Perhaps he's telling them this because he realizes lightning may not strike twice, and the live action MOTU movie may not see the same bizarre success the Barbie movie had. I'm honestly not excited to see yet another film based on toys adapted to another live action absurdity, and one must wonder why they'd want to make films that could discourage sales of their toys, which appears to be the result of the Barbie movie. Seriously, is that what they want? That their original toys crater in sales, not unlike how mainstream comicdom did in the past quarter century, no matter what the box office for the films based on them? Well that's not good. And if they're okay with discouraging toy sales, that's troubling. It's also confusing, seeing how the guy says they don't care about the box office results. Not that I consider movie adaptations such a big deal, but it's still bizarre why a movie could be produced to serve as some kind of "loss leader" for selling toys, with no clear clue as to whether the gamble will pay off. What that suggests is that the new film doesn't stand on its own in terms of entertainment value, and if not, it perpetuates a serious problem with how entertainment products are being sold, developed and marketed.

Whether the new MOTU movie sells and audiences flock to see it remains to be seen. But based on how absurd the company management at Mattel is these days, that's why it's hard to understand why we should bankroll these productions if story merit's not the name of the game here.