Dear Ynon,
It wasnt until I sat down with you onstage yesterday at the annual Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit that I realized the last time we were face to face, I had concluded I probably wasnt ever going to see you again.
It was a breakfast at the Polo Lounge, months before you took the job as CEO/chairman at Mattel in 2018. When you indicated you were accepting the chairman position, it triggered an unexpected range of emotions in me.
First there was panic. What little I knew of of the toy company did not leave a flattering impression. Did this mean I would have to pay for this meal? Because if I was, I would have certainly suggested a more modestly priced Starbucks.
Then came confusion. As I said to myself then, Why tell the Hollywood trade guy youre leaving the business to go play with dolls?
Thats just the way we Variety scribes think, of course. Exit showbiz, and you might as well have purchased a one-way ticket to Mars.
But even when you explained over our meal that you werent leaving Hollywood so much as you were bringing Mattel to Hollywood by turning all those iconic toy brands into an intellectual-property goldmine of movies and TV shows, I just didnt buy it. I hid my skepticism behind a polite smile.
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Could you blame me, Ynon? Who can forget one of Hollywoods most notorious movie bombs of the 21st century Battleship, a $200 million flop from 2012 that happened to be based on a Hasbro board game?
And then theres what few people do recall: Mattel had already tried to license its way to media glory in 2013. It failed so miserably that nobody noticed the company even tried. Why am the only person alive who happens to remember? Because I foolishly shepherded a Variety cover story on that doomed effort.
Anyone remember this? Yeah, me neither. Just asking for a friend So that day in the Polo Lounge, I bit my tongue, wished you well and wondered from afar if your previous stint at Disney, managing the turbulent Maker Studios asset, had left you with enough post-traumatic stress disorder to warp your otherwise impeccable judgment.
Five years later, I am forced to concede only one of us needs to get his brain checked.
As 2023 draws to a close, you can claim the cinematic breakthrough of the year: Barbie, which became the most successful film in the 100-year history of Warner Bros.
Now lets be clear: While youve certainly paid your dues in the media business over the years in prominent roles at Maker, Endemol and Fox Kids Europe, it must be said: You are not, and never have been, a movie guy. But that didnt stop you from hitting a grand slam in your first at-bat playing a new sport.
Lets not forget, Mattel was depicted in the movie itself, and you were played by none other than Will Ferrell. How much good fortune does one man get to have in one life?
I guess well find out if and when Barbie wins an Oscar or reaches the $2 billion mark at the box office. Regardless of whether it hits that sales mark, you already announced last week that $125 million of those receipts go to Mattel, which doesnt include the 25 percent sales spike Barbie toy sales saw over July and August, according to market researcher Circana.
So youll have to pardon me when I confess I could not stomach allowing you to dine out again on the success of that movie in our interview yesterday. Was that because I have I heard you take so many richly deserved Barbie victory laps already? Or was it because even just one lap is too many when the truth is I was so spectacularly wrong about you taking Mattel into the media business in the first place?
I know the painful answer, of course. But to borrow from Disneys We Dont Talk About Bruno, at the Variety summit We Dont Talk About Barbie.
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Instead, I find myself continuing to compulsively second-guess you in hopes of salvaging some sense of my own wisdom. Take this recent New Yorker report that as many as 45 film ideas are in various stages of development at Mattel to take the companys many toy brands to follow the footsteps of Barbie to the big screen.
Come on, Ynon. Of course most of these wont make it past the script stage, but 45? Is Mattel really going to yield a cinematic universe over time the way Marvel did?
And when we pop the hood on some of the projects already humming in active development on the slate, theres an interesting pattern: What made the success of Barbie all the more audacious was the pairing of an uncompromising auteur such as director Greta Gerwig with something as nakedly commercial as Mattel merch.
OK, but when you take that caviar-and-candy approach again and again, with Daniel Kaluuyas A24-type approach to the purple dinosaur in Barney Polly Pocket, with Girls impresario Lena Dunham; J.J. Abrams grounded and gritty approach to Hot Wheels and the novelist Michael Chabon writing for Tom Hanks to star in Major Matt Mason, how many times exactly do we expect lightning to strike here?
Wait a second, though. They do all sound like intriguing ideas. Maybe theyll all do great. Who am I to say they wont? Where do I get off saying otherwise, right?
Oh, great. Now youve got me second-guessing myself instead of you! See what you made me do, Ynon? Your blinding success reduced me first to potshots and nitpicks and then a self-confidence meltdown.
Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut at least until Barbie 2 opens.
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