How the Barbie movie is changing Mattel''s business Mattel is betting big on its 63-year-old Barbie brand with a star-studded big screen debut slated for July 2023. While Barbie''s iconography is strong, the brand has struggled from time to time. From 2013 to 2018 Mattel''s net sales and gross profits were falling, but with Ynon Kreiz''s arrival as CEO in 2018, the company''s intellectual property verticals have undergone deep expansion, and its performance has been positive since early 2020.