Mattel is No. 17 on the list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024. Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture.

A 65-year-old doll that Americans have had mixed feelings about for at least half that time never exactly screamed “summer blockbuster.” Yet when Mattel made the brave decision to put Barbie in the hands of producer and star Margot Robbie and writer-director Greta Gerwig, an unlikely Hollywood fairy tale unfolded.

By empowering the filmmakers to subvert Barbie’s established brand values and messaging—and parody Mattel in the process—the company opened up boundless new revenue potential for its signature product.

The movie, a coproduction between Mattel and Warner Bros., went on to earn $1.4 billion globally, making it the highest grossing film of 2023. Barbie also became something much rarer: a cultural event that attracted movie-goers of all ages to theaters in droves (and wearing pink); nearly one-quarter of those viewers hadn’t been to a movie theater since before COVID.

Nothing about Barbie was orthodox: It spoofed the iconic doll and Mattel’s CEO, contained an extended feminist monologue, showcased a character named Weird Barbie, and even made good use of a Matchbox Twenty song. Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz understood that that was exactly the point. “It’s all about bringing the best talent in the industry” to a film, “and trusting their creative process,” Kreiz says— and “not just accepting that process but embracing and amplifying it. It wasn’t that Mattel was saying ‘Okay’ or ‘Let it happen. We actually wanted to break convention.”

Mattel and Warner Bros. carried this spirit through to their marketing, engaging a variety of brands to stoke excitement, such as Xbox, Airbnb (which listed an IRL Malibu Dreamhouse), Gap (where Richard Dickson, Mattel’s former COO, who helped develop the Barbie project, became CEO in August), and more.

These efforts, combined with the excitement over the film itself, generated more than $150 million in Barbie toy and and consumer product sales, driving Mattel’s operating income margin up 60% in 2023. Sales of Barbie products shot up 24% in the months after the movie’s release.

“Our job is to take brands that are timeless and make them timely,” says Kreiz. The company will apply what it learned from this experience to upcoming Mattel film projects. First up are a Hot Wheels movie, produced by J.J. Abrams, and a Major Matt Mason film, starring Tom Hanks. 

Explore the full 2024 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, 606 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the firms making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, artificial intelligence, design, sustainability, and more.