Mattel, the giant toy manufacturing company best known for creating Barbie, has been having an extremely good month.
This is due to the impossible-to-miss release of Greta Gerwig’s latest film, Barbie, which sees Ryan Gosling tanned and bleached as Ken, Margot Robbie polished and shiny as Barbie, and a whole host of Hollywood’s biggest names – including Kate McKinnon, Helen Mirren, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Nicola Coughlan, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir – among the supporting cast.
When the first reviews landed in July, they praised Gerwig’s witty feminist take on the famous doll, which has been a fixture of countless childhoods for over six decades. “One of the funnest and funniest movies ever made... Barbie is easily the comedy of the year,” said The Standard.
Barbie has now smashed records at the Box Office. The film made $356.3m across its opening weekend and has currently made over $1 billion. This makes Gerwig’s movie the 2nd highest-earning film of the year so far, and she is the first solo female director to earn over a billion dollars with a feature film.
But Barbie is only the beginning for Mattel, it seems, as the company reportedly has as many as 14 toy-to-film projects in the works, plus a theme park.
According to Mattel, the theme park, which is set to open as soon as next year in Arizona, will boast two “pulse-pounding Hot Wheels rollercoasters” and “a life-size Barbie Beach House”, and will showcase the “full spectrum” of Mattel’s brands. It’s set to be built across nine acres, and, according to Mattel director Julie Freeland, construction is already underway and “substantial progress has been made”.
The park will include Thomas & Friends-themed indoor play areas, a Masters of the Universe-themed “4,500 square-foot laser tag arena”, an enigmatic “custom climb UNO structure” and a mini golf “experience” inspired by some of Mattel’s most famous games.
But Mattel isn’t stopping there. According to a New Yorker article published last month, the company’s CEO, Ynon Kreiz, is moving to capitalise on Mattel’s many famous intellectual properties (IPs) including Hot Wheels, the card game UNO, Thomas & Friends and Polly Pocket by making more films.
“My thesis was that we needed to transition from being a toy-manufacturing company, making items, to an IP company, managing franchises,” said Kreiz.
According to the feature “Mattel is raiding its entire toybox,” which in practice means that the recently created Mattel Films is now looking for film studios, directors, and writers, which it hopes to then match with its various “properties”.
Films in the works include a Daniel Kaluuya-produced film about the toy company’s giant purple dinosaur Barney, which promises to be, as Mattel Films’ vice president Kevin McKeon put it, a “surrealistic” take. “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” he said.
Lena Dunham is also reportedly in the process of making a Polly Pocket film, which will star Lily Collins (Emily In Paris) as Polly.
“It’s been an amazing collaboration,” said Head of Mattel Films Robbie Brenner, speaking to Variety. “Lena is so collaborative and rolls up her sleeves and really likes to roll around in notes and listen. She’s incredible. Lily [Collins] is so smart and so specific and so productorial. It’s just been an incredible collaboration, so we are thrilled about it. Hopefully, we’ll be making that at some point in the future.”
Brenner worked at Miramax for close to a decade and has produced over 25 films since 2001, including A Little Bit of Heaven (2011), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and Out of the Furnace (2013).
There are also films about toys such as Hot Wheels, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Thomas & Friends, Matchbox (the toy cars), action figure Major Matt Mason, UNO, and Magic 8 Ball in the works.
According to Variety, there are some major talents attached to the early projects, too, including JJ Abrams who will direct Hot Wheels, Marc Forster, who will direct Thomas & Friends and writer Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend) who will write Major Matt Mason.
