Barbie owner Mattel, Inc (NASDAQ:MAT) is seeing a decline in doll sales despite its premier piece of intellectual property capturing the zeitgeist in 2023.
In second-quarter financial published on Wednesday, the toymaker penned a 6% year-on-year decline in doll sales, with Barbie sales specifically dropping by 3%.
Across all revenue lines, sales fell by 1%.
While it is now over a year since the Oscar-winning, Margot Robbie-starring feature film knocked it out of the playpen both commercially and critically, previous financial statements show that Mattel saw only a minor Barbie bump following the film’s success.
For the financial year ending 2023, which was the first year that Mattel spun out Barbie sales as a stand-alone revenue line, Barbie sales added just 3%.
It is unclear whether Mattel was hoping to revitalise Barbie sales in the wake of the feature film.
Part of meta-comedy-infused Barbie’s runaway box office success was its wider appeal to adult audiences through its focus on mature themes like feminism and gender stereotypes.
This was unlikely to have stimulated younger audiences, while mature audiences are not typically buyers of Barbie dolls (despite the film featuring a lapsed adult Barbie enthusiast in a main role).
Mattel’s share price is down more than 20% since the Barbie premiere.
It was a vastly different story for Danish toymaker The Lego Group in the wake of its successful cinematic debut in 2014.
The Lego Movie, while less of a cultural touchstone than Barbie, set a fire under Lego toy sales that year.
Financial reports show a 25% increase in revenues in the year of The Lego Movie’s premiere, representing a historically high rate of sales growth.
Similar to Barbie, The Lego Movie was infused with meta comedy and adult themes that struck a chord with adult audiences, while remaining an entertaining romp for children.
On review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, Barbie holds an 88% critic score and 82% audience score, while The Lego Movie has a 96% critic score and 87% audience score.