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Mattel
Inc.
is launching a film division to develop films based on Barbie, Hot Wheels and other popular brands it owns.
The company based in El Segundo, California, said Thursday it hired Robbie Brenner, film producer as the Oscar-nominated "Dallas Buyers Club," as executive producer to lead Mattel Films.
Brenner's recruitment comes as Mattel's new general manager, Ynon Kreizaims, abandons the toy manufacturing business to manage and monetize his brands. Movies, TV shows and short films online can help increase toy sales and generate revenue through license fees, ticket sales and distribution agreements.
Mattel has fallen behind its competitors Lego A / S and
Hasbro
Inc.
who have developed blockbusters based on their brands, including "The Lego Movie" and the "Transformers" franchise. Hasbro has a market valuation twice as high as Mattel's, even though the two companies' annual revenues are comparable.
Kreiz, a former TV studio director who became CEO in May, after former Google executive Margo Georgiadis abruptly left for another job, said Mattel never managed to capitalize on the potential media of his toys.
Mattel has produced entertainment content under different structures in recent years, but has not created a Hollywood blockbuster. The project of developing a Barbie movie live with Sony Pictures has been going on for at least four years, the project taking place through writers and leading actresses.
One of the difficulties is that Mattel's executives have historically measured their success by selling toys, rather than the way brands earn money, whether through license or content agreements. The company "is not run by brands like at home
Disney
,
"Said a former Mattel executive. "At Mattel, the toy leads, and it's the biggest philosophical problem [Mr. Kreiz] will have to overcome. "
In 2013, Mattel launched Playground Productions, which created the cartoons of Hot Wheels before being integrated with Mattel Creations in 2016, under the direction of the former content manager, Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, part last year. The division has produced an animated series based on American Girl dolls.
These content initiatives typically involved Mattel's brand teams who shared their time between creating and marketing toys and developing video content.
The new structure under the direction of Ms. Brenner would allow her team to focus on strike contracts with studios, writers and other film industry executives to oversee projects. It would also involve forming partnerships with other studios to produce and distribute Mattel films, rather than creating an internal studio for the toy company.
Ms. Brenner is former production president at Relativity Media and has been a senior executive at both 20th Century Fox and Miramax. His production credits include the sports drama "The Fighter" and Snow White's "White Mirror" adaptation.
Write to Paul Ziobro at [email protected]
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