Mattel CEO looks to Barbie to kickstart a film and movie business he hopes will compete with Marvel

• Mattel, the toy manufacturer behind Barbie, is leveraging its intellectual property to break into Hollywood.
• "We look at Marvel as a very good analogy," CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a Time interview published Sunday.
• Kreiz is betting big on Greta Gerwig's upcoming Barbie film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. 

Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz wants to transform the toy manufacturer into a bonafide entertainment franchise on par with Marvel.

"We look at Marvel as a very good analogy," Kreiz told Time in an interview published Sunday. "That is directionally what we believe we can achieve in terms of the strength, appeal, and built-in fan base of our franchises."

The toy conglomerate behind American Girl, Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Fisher-Price currently has 14 movies and 30 television shows in production, including a highly anticipated live-action Barbie film directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

Mattel recently emerged as an unexpected victor of the pandemic as parents sought out new ways to cut down their kids' screen time during lockdown. Sales in the latter half of 2020 were the company's highest in two decades, led by the resurging popularity of Barbie dolls. 

Building on the momentum, Kreiz said he wants Barbie to lead the way once more. Only this time, Mattel wants to expand from the toy aisle to both the small and big screen by leveraging the brand's intellectual property. Last week, Barbie made its Super Bowl debut in a Rocket Mortgage advertisement that came in first-place on USA Today's Ad Meter. 

"This is really our evolution to become an IP-driven, high performing employee company," the CEO told Time.

Barbie's growth comes in part from recent efforts to rebrand, with a focus on diversifying its dolls and brand messaging. The turnaround started with a 2015 ad that recast the doll as a role model for girls in the age of female empowerment, Insider's Tanya Dua reported last year. 

"It's a resilient industry, a strategic category for retailers," Kreiz told Time referring to the toy category. "But the opportunity for us is to extend beyond the toy industry into other categories that are actually larger."