Mattel to create cinematic universe with IP gems after Barbie box office success

Following the recent box office success of Greta Gerwig's Barbie, its original mothership Mattel, is planning to capitalise on its Hollywood debut by creating a cinematic universe of other toy treasures.

The toy company behemoth has already locked in over a dozen projects with a number of A-list collaborators attached. 

According to Variety, 14 projects are already in active development including: Polly Pocket, which is already reported to be lead by Lilly Collins (Emily in Paris), Barney, American Girl and Thomas and Friends.

Speaking to the outlet about their IP strategy ahead of Barbie's release, Mattel executives were optimistic about unleashing an entire Barbie world of sequels.

“Barbie, as a brand, has many different iterations. The product lines of Barbie is a very broad brand. In addition to the main Barbie figure, she has family, she has a lot of elements around in her universe,” Mattel's new CEO, Ynon Kreiz told Variety. “It’s a very rich universe… It’s a very broad and very elastic brand, in terms of opportunities.”

Kreiz continued: “At the outset, we’re not saying, ‘Okay, let’s think already about movie two and three.’ Let’s get the first one right and make that a success. And if you do that, opportunities open up very quickly, once you establish the first movie as a successful representation of a franchise on the big screen.”

“Successful movies lend themselves to more movies,” he added. “Our ambition is to create film franchises.”

Other projects in the pipeline include: Hot Wheels, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Magic 8 Ball, Masters of the Universe, Major Matt Mason, Uno, Wishbone, Matchbox, View Master and Christmas Balloon.