How do you follow a $1.5 billion blockbuster like the “Barbie” movie?
If you’re Mattel, the toy giant, you turn to the next doll in your dollhouse. Or rather, the next action figure.
He-Man was the company’s hypermasculine follow-up to the runaway success of the Barbie doll, as popular with boys in the mid-1980s as the 11½-inch bombshell was with girls.
On Friday, he will get his own $170 million live-action movie, “Masters of the Universe,” Mattel’s second foray into making films centered on nostalgic toys far more familiar to parents than the children of today. Movies about Hot Wheels and Polly Pocket are also in the works. “Matchbox: The Movie,” starring John Cena, will debut on Apple TV in the fall.
In many ways, “Masters of the Universe” is a bigger gamble for Mattel’s ambitions to cement itself as a Hollywood powerhouse than “Barbie” was. Whereas the Barbie brand has remained relevant for generations, He-Man has been firmly stuck in the amber of the ’80s. Today’s cynical moviegoer, raised on sleek “Star Wars” and Marvel franchises, may scoff at the campy golden locks and earnest demeanor of the original He-Man character.
Mattel executives are already trying to set expectations.
“We’ve always said that not every movie will be the next ‘Barbie,’” Mattel’s chief executive, Ynon Kreiz, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in El Segundo, Calif. “We don’t need every movie to be the next ‘Barbie’ for those movies to be important, to have real impact.”
The 81-year-old toymaker’s turn to Hollywood follows similar efforts from Disney to exploit the Marvel universe. For decades, toy companies operated on a licensing model, selling their characters to film studios for a flat fee and a small cut of sales. That left them at the mercy of outside creative executives who often let projects languish.
Under Mr. Kreiz, Mattel has flipped the script, demanding creative oversight and strict production milestones. The goal is a cyclical economic strategy: Create a global blockbuster that supercharges toy sales, leading to more movies, leading to more toy sales.
And on that metric, at least, “Masters of the Universe” is already a success for Mattel.
“There’s already a wave of excitement,” Mr. Kreiz said. “Product is selling fast, both for the classic fans and the new generation. In some ways, even before the movie opens, it’s already a win.”
Box office projections suggest the film will open at $35 million, and reviews have been solid. Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator site, gave the film a 72 percent fresh rating. (Barbie sits at 88 percent fresh.)
“Masters of the Universe” tells the hero’s journey of Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine), who has to flee his home planet, Eternia, as a child and spends his formative years toiling in human resources while searching for the sword he has been commanded to protect. Upon finding it, he is transformed into He-Man (“By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!”), and is called back home to defend Eternia from the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto).
The movie’s other characters, with names like Ram Man and Fisto, sound as if they were invented by an 8-year-old boy. In reality, the toy line was a course correction after Mattel turned down the opportunity to make a line of “Star Wars” toys for George Lucas.
This type of lore, with all its quirkiness, is exactly why the film’s director, Travis Knight, has been such a die-hard He-Man fan since he was a child.
“It was just really weird,” he said of the toy line that turned into the 1980s cult television show. “It was as if the people who created the characters just threw any idea they had into a blender, shook things up and then vomited it out. There were robots and laser guns and guys with battle-axes, things that shouldn’t go together.”
Translating that into a modern movie has taken Mattel more than 15 years.
In 2009, Sony Pictures bought the film rights from Warner Bros., but writer after writer failed to crack the script.
“We wanted to do our version that would be for today’s audience,” Todd Black, a producer of the movie, said. “No one could get the tone,” he added. “It was either too silly, too serious, too familiar.”
In 2018, Mr. Kreiz joined Mattel and pulled back all the rights to the company’s various titles, including “Masters of the Universe,” because, he said, he felt that the toy lines were not a priority for the studios.
When Mr. Kreiz signed new licenses, he added metrics to force the companies to move in months, not years, and to share some creative control with Mattel, which had hired a veteran producer, Robbie Brenner, to manage its strategy.
In the end, it was Amazon MGM Studios — under the guidance of Courtenay Valenti, who oversaw production of “Barbie” at Warner Bros. — that finally made “Masters of the Universe.”
“If you can capture the audience for whom it was dear and their children, you will have a strong core audience,” Ms. Valenti said in an email. “It becomes a nostalgic experience for the parent that they want to share with their kids. This, frankly, was part of the strategic thinking with ‘Barbie’ and, I have to imagine, for Disney with many of their signature brands.”
But exactly how strong is that core audience? Barbie’s global, decades-long relevance drew in an estimated 140 million moviegoers worldwide in 2023.
“Masters of the Universe” enters the arena with a much narrower target. The loyal fans are mostly men who grew up on the ’80s cartoon version, and are still ardent collectors of the merchandise.
Still, Mr. Kreiz is confident that the film, with its unique mythology and specific tone, will work with both new and old fans.
“Just like with ‘Barbie,’ we’re not saying we’re going to make a movie so we can push toys,” Mr. Kreiz said. “It has to be, ‘We’re going to make a great movie.’ Period. If we do that well, good things will happen.”
