Mattel was founded in 1945 by Harold Matson and Elliot and Ruth Handler in a Southern California garage, originally selling picture frames and dollhouse furniture. The company's trajectory was permanently altered in 1959 when Ruth Handler invented Barbie. Barbie was a new concept: a three-dimensional adult fashion doll that allowed young girls to project future aspirations rather than simply practicing motherhood with baby dolls. Fueled by aggressive, pioneering television advertising during the Mickey Mouse Club, Barbie became a long-running cultural phenomenon and Mattel's biggest brand, followed by Hot Wheels in 1968.
The Toys "R" Us Collapse and the Dark Era
In the 2010s Mattel leaned heavily on its legacy brands, and the approach stopped working. The rise of digital entertainment (Minecraft, Roblox, iPads) stole the attention of children, compressing the "age of play" (the age when children stop playing with physical toys). The crisis became existential in 2017 when Toys "R" Us, a major retail customer, filed for bankruptcy and liquidated. Mattel's sales fell, it lost $1.05 billion in 2017, and it went through several CEOs between 2015 and 2018.
The Ynon Kreiz Turnaround
In 2018, the board hired Ynon Kreiz, an executive with deep experience in Hollywood and digital media, as CEO. Kreiz executed an operational turnaround. He slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate overhead, closed underperforming global factories, and stabilized the financial bleeding. However, Kreiz's true strategic pivot was ideological. He declared that Mattel was no longer a "toy manufacturing company"; it was an "IP (intellectual property) company that makes toys." He realized that Mattel possessed an underused catalogue of globally recognized brands that were un-monetized outside of the toy aisle.
The Barbie Blockbuster and Mattel Films
The culmination of this IP strategy was the creation of Mattel Films. Instead of simply licensing its brands to Hollywood studios for a flat fee, Mattel partnered with established filmmakers to reinvent its IP for adult audiences. The result was the 2023 Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig. The film was a global hit, grossing about $1.44 billion. For Mattel, the movie generated high-margin licensing income, but more importantly, it created a halo effect, lifting sales of the physical dolls and expensive branded apparel.
The Disney Princess Reclamation
Beyond its owned IP, Mattel's financial stability relies heavily on licensing deals. In 2014, Mattel lost the lucrative license to manufacture the Disney Princess and Frozen dolls to its rival, Hasbro. In 2022 Mattel won back the Disney Princess license from Hasbro. Products under the regained licence began shipping in 2023. In 2026 the company added full ownership of the Mattel163 games studio and released the Masters of the Universe film, while sales stayed near $5.35 billion a year.
