Mattel Films

**Mattel Films** was the film production division of American toy and entertainment company Mattel that operated from September 6, 2018 to June 2, 2025. It succeeded **Mattel Playground Productions**, which was formed on October 16, 2013 as part of _Mattel Global Brands_, a unified media structural and strategy unit, as itself the successor to _Mattel Entertainment_ and _Mattel Studios_, Mattel's prior entertainment brands/banners.

On March 31, 2016, Mattel placed the division within a newly created division at the time, Mattel Creations, absorbed its operations into it and, seven months later, made it defunct due to poor box office reception of the release of the live action film _Max Steel_. On September 6, 2018, the division was revived and reformed as Mattel Films.

On June 2, 2025, Mattel announced a merger, combination and consolidation of this division and its television division, Mattel Television, into **Mattel Studios**, elevating and/or promoting this division's head Robbie Brenner to/as head of Mattel Studios. This is seen as a revival of the brand/banner Mattel used occasionally or sparingly between 2011 and 2013 in place of their main logo in the end credits for media entries of _Monster High_, _Ever After High_ and _Polly Pocket_.

## History

A joint venture with Mattel and producer Robert B. Radnitz was launched in May 1970, which produced family films including _Sounder_, _Where the Lilies Bloom_, and _A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich_.

In March 2009, HIT Entertainment, prior to being acquired by Mattel in 2012, launched its HIT Movies division in Los Angeles with Julia Pistor as division head, to create films based on the company's franchises. The division's first planned film adaptation was a live-action _Thomas & Friends_ film, scheduled for late 2010.

On October 26, 2013, Mattel launched **Playground Productions** (shortened as **Mattel PGP** or just **PGP**) as its in-house film studio to handle multimedia productions for its brands for global multi-platform distribution. Its first animated project was _Team Hot Wheels: The Origin of Awesome!_. Mattel had been developing a live-action Hot Wheels film at Legendary Entertainment and Universal Pictures, films featuring the _Masters of the Universe_ and _Barbie_ brands at Columbia Pictures, a _Monster High_ film with Universal and a _Max Steel_ film with Dolphin Entertainment. PGP was planned to set up three-year storytelling plans that incorporate every part of the company's core operations, from toy designers to consumer products and marketing. David Voss, a veteran in the toy and entertainment business, was appointed as the division's head and Senior Vice President.

With WWE on March 17, 2014, Mattel PGP launched an online short form series, _WWE Slam City_, to go along with its dedicated toy line. The series was picked up by Nicktoons' NickSports programming block from October 22, 2014.

After Voss left the division in January 2016 for subscription service, Loot Crate, Mattel placed PGP within Mattel Creations upon its formation along with its other two content production units: HIT Entertainment and the content creation team of American Girl at Middleton, Wisconsin. After the critical and commercial failure of the live action _Max Steel_ film on October 14, 2016, Mattel Playground Productions was absorbed into Mattel Creations.

### Reformation as Mattel Films

On September 6, 2018, Mattel announced the launch of a film division, **Mattel Films**, that will make films based on the company's toy brands. Outside Mattel, the division is widely recognized as the revival and replacement of Mattel PGP. Mattel Films with Academy Award-nominated film producer Robbie Brenner was appointed to head the division as executive producer and will report directly to Mattel's CEO, Ynon Kreiz.

The division's first two projects were the _Barbie_ and _Masters of the Universe_ live-action films. On January 7, 2019, it was announced that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling would star in the _Barbie_ film to be co-produced with Warner Bros. Pictures and Robbie's production company, LuckyChap Entertainment. _Barbie_ was released in theaters worldwide by _Warner Bros. Pictures_ on July 21, 2023, and to date has made over $1.4 billion at the global box office and became the #1 highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. Pictures' 100-year history.

With the _Hot Wheels_ film rights option with Legendary Entertainment expired and reverted to Mattel, its film division shopped the property to Warner Bros. for a partnership on a film for the first time on January 29, 2019. The company teamed up with Universal Pictures for the first time on July 16, 2020, on adaptation of _Wishbone_ to film.

In October 2020, Mattel Films announced that a live-action animated film based on _Thomas & Friends_ was in development, to be directed by Marc Forster and developed by his production company 2Dux<sup>2</sup>.

On April 19, 2021, Mattel Films teamed up with Universal Pictures and Vin Diesel's One Race Films for a live-action film adaptation of the 1966-launched toy, _Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots_, starring Vin Diesel, a Barney film with Daniel Kaluuya, a Polly Pocket film with Lena Dunham and Lily Collins.

On June 24, 2021, Mattel Films and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer agreed to work on a live-action film based on Polly Pocket.

On December 16, 2021, Mattel Films announced its first project based on outside intellectual property: _Christmas Balloon_, which is written by Gabby Revilla. The film is intended to be based on the true story of a young girl who tried to send her Christmas message to Santa via a balloon.

In July 2022, Mattel Films and Skydance announced the development of a live-action film based on the Matchbox die-cast toy vehicles.

On June 2, 2025, Mattel announced a merger, combination and consolidation of this division and its filming division into Mattel Studios, elevating and promoting Mattel Films head Robbie Brenner to head of Mattel Studios. This is seen as a revival of the brand/banner Mattel used occasionally or sparingly between 2011 and 2013 in place of their main logo in the end credits for media entries of _Monster High_, _Ever After High_ and _Polly Pocket_. Consequently, productions previously announced and in development with these two divisions will now be assumed by/transferred to Mattel Studios.

## Filmography

|colspan="7"|As Mattel Playground Productions|||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_Monster High_|October 20, 2013 – April 3, 2016|2D-animated shorts and web series|Nerd Corps Entertainment|YouTube||||||
|_Monster High_|2013–2016|Animated films|DHX Media Vancouver Nerd Corps Entertainment|Television:  Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (Home video release)|61–75 minutes|||||
|_Barbie and the Secret Door_|October 16, 2014|Animated film|Rainmaker Entertainment|Television: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (Home video release)||||||
|_Team Hot Wheels_|June 7, 2014|Animated series|Mercury Filmworks Titmouse, Inc.|Digital platforms YouTube|*22-minute origin story (Spring) *11 2-minute shorts (Summer) *74-minute direct-to-video film (Autumn/Fall)|||||
|_WWE Slam City_||Stop motion series|Stoopid Buddy Stoodios|Digital platforms Nicktoons|26-episode 2-minute shorts series|||||
|rowspan="4"|_Ever After High_|rowspan="4"|May 30, 2013 – June 20, 2016|"Legacy Day" 15-minute special|rowspan="4"|Guru Studio|Netflix|rowspan="4"|Web series|
|"True Hearts Day" 22-minute webisode special|rowspan="3"|||||||||
|"Thronecoming" 44-minute television special||||||||||
|66 3-minute webisodes||||||||||
|_Barbie in Princess Power_||rowspan="4"|Animated film|rowspan="4"|Rainmaker Entertainment|rowspan="4"|Nickelodeon (U.S. broadcast) Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (Home video release)|rowspan="4"||
|_Barbie in Rock 'N Royals_||||||||||
|_Barbie & Her Sisters in The Great Puppy Adventure_||||||||||
|_Barbie: Spy Squad_||||||||||
|_Max Steel_||Live-action film|Dolphin Films Ingenious Media|Open Road Films|Final production before the absorption of Mattel PGP into Mattel Creations.|||||
|_Barbie_|July 21, 2023|rowspan="6"|Live-action film|Heyday Films LuckyChap Entertainment NB/GG Pictures|Warner Bros. Pictures|First movie from the division to receive a PG-13 rating.||||
|_Masters of the Universe_|June 5, 2026|Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Escape Artists|Amazon MGM Studios|||||||
|_Matchbox_||Skydance Media|Apple Studios|Set to star John Cena||||||
|_Thomas & Friends_||2Dux<sup>2</sup>||||||||
|_Barney_||Valparaiso Pictures 59% Productions|A24|||||||
|_American Girl_||Temple Hill Entertainment|Paramount Pictures|||||||
|_Bob the Builder_||Animated film|ShadowMachine Nuyorican Productions|Amazon MGM Studios|Set to star Anthony Ramos|||||
|_Christmas Balloon_||rowspan="10"|Live-action film|Vital Pictures||||||
|_Hot Wheels_||Bad Robot|Warner Bros. Pictures|||||||
|_Magic 8 Ball_||||||||||
|_Major Matt Mason_||Playtone Weed Road Pictures|Paramount Pictures|Set to star Tom Hanks||||||
|_Monster High_||Weed Road Pictures|Universal Pictures|||||||
|_Polly Pocket_||Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Good Thing Going|Amazon MGM Studios|||||||
|_Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots_||One Race Films|Universal Pictures|Set to star Vin Diesel||||||
|_Uno_||Quality Films||||||||
|_View-Master_||Escape Artists|Sony Pictures Releasing|||||||
|_Wishbone_|||Universal Pictures|||||||

## See also

- Barbenheimer