Name: Hasbro's New Game Plan: Big Push On Movies and Television
Uploaded: 2021-06-25
Duration: 7 min 53 s
Description: CEO Brian Goldner says Hasbro’s new movie studio will turn its famous toy brands into superstars.

CEO Brian Goldner ​says Hasbro’s ​new movie studio will turn its famous toy brands into superstars. 

Hasbro's New Game Plan: Big Push On Movies and Television

Leadership

brian. So great to see you once again. Especially now that Hasbro is ranked once again on the Fortune 500 after a 20 year absence. So congratulations on that milestone. And it seems that part of the reason that Hasbro has returned to the 500 is that your toy business was booming during the pandemic? Tell us about that. Yeah, we've really seen incredibly strong demand from consumers across our gaming business and preschool, our creative play business like Plato and around the world. People have found the opportunity to make connections between kids and parents and people are enjoying their game nights more than ever. And it's continuing even now as the pandemic subsides in certain geography, I think one thing that many people may not know is that have though is more than just toys. Just before the pandemic, you bought a movie studio entertainment one or E one. Why do you think this is a good time to get into the movie business? Well, we're going to be focusing on movies, but also television and live action television is a booming business. We have properties that span multiple age groups and brands like dungeons and dragons and magic the gathering are these incredible brands with great mythology and they're perfect for storytelling. And so we're working now on a dungeons and dragons film, live action dungeons and dragons television and for magic the Gathering much the same. So we've got these great brands and brands like transformers that all really resonating storytelling close. Do you want to buy more movie and tv assets? What's your plan for has broke besides toys? You know, we own 1500 brands and you know, we have several that are on the market, but so many are in the vault the opportunity to activate our brands across our entire blueprint from storytelling to toys and games, consumer product licensing where other companies make categories of product for our global retailers and consumers. And then our digital gaming business, which is really booming uh in our fantasy gaming areas like magic, the gathering and dungeons and dragons. You mentioned a couple of brand names and their connection with movies. Tell us about some of the big hit that you're expecting to come out that will lure families back into movie theaters. Sure, well, we've got the big dungeons and Dragons movies starring Chris Pine. And we've got great cash like Hugh Grant and several other people who are in the movie. Uh Next year we're we'll have out for 2020 to a brand new live action transformers movie, which is in a whole new territory which we're very excited about this year. This fall we have a my little pony movie. It's our first the CG movie. And a whole new cast is coming out in september and we're going to launch that on netflix and there are 200 million subscribers globally. And in about a month we have our G. I joe movie coming out from Paramount in their partnership and it's called Snake Eyes and it's an origin story about one of our most favorite characters from the G. I joe lore. Well you mentioned a couple of the big movie studios like Paramount and the rising a netflix. But now that you have your own movie studio, how does that change your relationship with studios like paramount and Disney Netflix amazon? Well, one of the great parts about E one is they had a great relationship with so many producers and distributors of content. So we'll continue to sell to all the distributors of content, all the O. T. T platforms like netflix, Apple amazon hulu, others we have shows on the air and all those different services as well as broadcast networks um like abc for our rookie show. And we'll continue to be agnostic as we go around in the market. People are very interested in branded content and the high quality content that you want is producing. And then what happens to those Hasbro deals that are tied two movie releases. Those merchandise deals are big money makers. Will that change? We'll continue to produce transformers, movies and G. I. Joe movies. Those are really the two big brands that are currently in partnership with paramount. We are producing the D. I. D. And D. Movie with Paramount. So that will be in cooperation with them. And for the first quarter 2023 were called producing that. And uh it's very exciting to get a brand new brand into the marketplace and you're right globally. Film is amazing because we're able to event ties it, it's great to see people going back to theaters as uh, there is the reopening is happening. Well, you know, you talk about the reopening, there's still a lot of doubters about whether the movie business will really come back. I mean, streaming has become so popular as you know, so to what extent is this trend of moving movie content directly to the streaming platforms, bypassing the movie theaters all together? How does that impact the uh, the financial business model of your movie and toy businesses bypassing the theatrical window for certain content? And streaming has been a boon for, has problems, you know, the Mandalorian from Disney and Disney Plus has been tremendous and a success for us, our own transformers on netflix uh, with the war for cybertron has been a big success in merchandising. So what we see is a narrow window or narrowing window for theatrical release is probably a 45 day window over time as we get through the pandemic and we'll have content and business opportunity for both the theatrical, as well as an increasing number of streaming platforms. You sound so positive and upbeat about your business, not that the pandemic is winding down. What is your outlook for business for the rest of this year and going into 2022. Yeah, so we think that our business will grow double digits this year. E one will get back on track and production is already has happened. So they're back in production on television and film. They'll get back to their numbers for the 2019 level for, for television and film revenues. We'll get double digit growth are better out of wizards of the coast and our consumer products businesses performing very strongly like so many other american businesses have begun raising prices. And so the same things going on at Hasbro because of higher raw material costs. But how do you think that these price increases will impact sales and your forecast? We see it as transitory. This is not something that we see as a permanent need to increase prices perpetually, but just rather for now to make sure that we're able to bring products to market and to cover our costs to ensure that we're able to maintain our margins for our consumers, uh, for our employees and for our shareholders. Well, we're at the halfway point of the year. So I have to ask you about the holiday season. How is that shaping up for? Have, what's your outlook? We'll look at the holiday season in some ways. It started earlier than ever. We've got prime day that's just going on this week and uh, several other big retailers with their big promotional windows. We see more promotional windows happening more often, less pricing or discounting on product because products are in high demand. So it should be a very good holiday as people are spending money and wanting to spend time together playing and entertaining. So can you give us a sneak peek on what's going to be the hot toy or game this holiday season? I think one of the brands that we're launching this year that's going to be incredibly successful because it's been so successful and parents are going to be wanting these products is the Peppa Pig line. So Pepe is a big brand, getting bigger, more popular than ever. We have a brand new lineup of brand new Peppa Pig toys for the holidays and I think parents will be clamoring for that.