Gifts / Sports & Toys

There is a new move in the IP licensing dispute between the two major toy giants in the United States. According to foreign media reports, Mattel has regained the authorization of Disney princesses including "Frozen" from Hasbro. This is Mattel's re-authorization after eight years of losing its authorization in 2014.

At that time, Mattel's leading actress "Barbie" was in a low sales trough. According to industry rumors, Mattel intended to focus on supporting its own doll product lines, MHigh and Ever After High.

On the other hand, Hasbro is vigorously developing a series of toys for girls, so Disney decided to hand over the "Disney Princess" IP license to Hasbro, which has been producing Disney Princess and Frozen toys since 2016. The original products Hasbro, whose line was skewed toward boys, then made a huge ascent in the girls' toy space.

According to reports: Before 2016, Mattel had made a lot of profits from the licensing of the "Disney Princess" series in hand. Only in 2015 (the last year before the contract expired), the Disney Princess series brought Mattel to Mattel. About $500 million in sales, or 9% of full-year sales for the year.

After losing the authorization of the Disney Princess series, Mattel reconsidered and reformed the Barbie series. By launching a series of dolls with different skin tones and different figures, the style is closer to reality and more grounded, and it has regained the market's popularity for Barbie. favorite. In the following years, Barbie's sales slump was reversed. In 2020, when the epidemic broke out, it even achieved the best sales results in the past ten years.

Regarding the Disney Princess license, Mattel did not disclose the financial terms of the latest agreement. According to Reuters, the agreement is similar to Disney's agreement with Pixar Animation Studios for the "Toy Story" and "Cars" franchises and the extended IP "Buzz Lightyear".

According to the latest agreement, Mattel will release a full range of related fashion dolls from 2023, including "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", "Brave", "Cinderella", "The Little Mermaid", "Mulan" and "Pocahontas" "The Princess and the Frog", "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Tangled", "Frozen", etc., as well as the animation "Moana and Tiana" broadcast on the streaming platform Disney+ , as well as live-action versions of IP images such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Mulan.

The partnership between Mattel and Disney dates back to the 1950s, and in recent years, there have been a number of cross-brand and cross-category licensing collaborations.

It is reported that Mattel shares rose 6.5% after the news of the Disney princess licensing change, while Hasbro fell about 2%.