Mattel Reports ‘Ghostbusters’ Toy Sales Have ‘Exceeded Expectations’  

Mattel is reporting strong early sales for its line of toys based on the female-led “Ghostbusters” — from both boys and girls.

In keeping with the tagline “Everybody wants to be a Ghostbuster,” Mattel’s retail strategy was to sell the female-led Ghostbusters action figures in the boys’ toy aisle. The sales figures at the top retailers in the country have exceeded expectations, the toymaker reported Friday.

Children have also supported the Sony movie, which has grossed $62 million domestically in its first six days. According to comScore Post Track, that demographic gave “Ghostbusters” a 4-1/2 star score this past weekend.

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Mattel said “Ghostbusters” action figures and character mini-figures, the Ecto vehicle and the Proton pack are all selling well.

“We’re thrilled with the response to the new Ghostbusters toy line,” said Joe Lawandus, senior VP of design and marketing for Mattel’s Toy Box. “We worked closely with Sony to ensure each figure featured authentic details from the movie including a wearable proton pack. The early momentum shows the product is resonating with ‘Ghostbusters’ fans!”

“Ghostbusters” is directed by Paul Feig and written by Feig and Katie Dippold. The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as a quartet who start a ghostbuster business in New York City while the city is beset by an invasion of ghosts.

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This looks like manufacturer-to-store sales, not store -to-consumer sales. Considering they were marked clearance before the movie opened, I would be interested in seeing the end user sales numbers.

This smells funny. Then again, set your expectations low enough and you’re bound to exceed them.

Gimme a G, gimme an H, gimme an O…..where’s your pom-poms?

Yeah. When you sell, the classics alongside the new cast. You do tend to sell a lot. The classics are all being sold out. The new cast are already in poundland. Try harder.

Seriously? My stores shelf was stocked totally full of them.

So that’s the reason Target had these toys on clearance weeks ago?

Target always puts toys on clearance after a few months because they try to keep their toy aisle limited to the big franchises while making room for whatever new toy happens to be coming out. It’s their business model. They have done it with every toy franchise.

They don’t put usually new toys that are from a new movie that hadn’t on even been released at the time the figures were on clearance 2 weeks ago.

…and this movie hadn’t even been released. The toys were barely on the shelf for three-and-a-half weeks before being marked for clearance, toolbag.

These executives must believe Americans stupid in trying to convince them that this film is a success in some way.

Indeed, they have to make between 350 and 400 millions to break even, so calling a movie which made 65 millions in is first week is just plain desperate.

GH2016 had $46m opening weekend in the US, and the $65m count is from the total international revenue, and that includes an entere week in the UK, where it opened on Monday 11th. Given that it earned as respectable $17m on the Friday, but only $16m on the Saturday (and earning less on the Saturday is almost unheard of) and then $13m on the Sunday, this film looks set to definitely under-perform.

Independence Day: Resurgence was a bomb. Look it up. The reason they say 350 to 400 million is because these big budget special fx movies need to make double to be considered worth the cost. Aside from the budget, the studio would like to recoup the cost of marketing, with for this movie is probably 30 to 50 million. And the studio doesn’t just want to make 200 million at the box office, because they don’t spend that much money on a movie to just break even or make 20 million dollars profit. They want 100 million dollars profit or more. Also, Ghostbusters didn’t have a 65 million dollar weekend. It was 46 million. The 65 million is probably what it made in the U.S. to date. (which is now up to 79 million.)

ID Resurgence is a flop. Way to rewrite the narrative to suggest the box office on GB is a success against a failed movie.

Paul Feig stated that GB needs 500 million to make another sequel. The movie needs $144 million net just to pay for the film itself. Marketing is likely to cost another $100 million. The $65 million is a box office gross figure, and includes free tickets (that are included as write off against full price of the ticket). While theatres don’t make much on your movie ticket sale, they do make a bit of money. You can subtract an easy 20% to cover those items.

GB may make enough money to pay the salaries of everyone who made it when you include all the box office sales this year, and any DVD/Blu-Ray sales, along with licensing deals. But I think that’s as far as this movie is going, at least this year. That means it’s the dead walking.

Also, the most expensive movie to produce of all time was PotC: Stranger Tides, at $378.5 million.

FWIW, the original budget of Ghostbusters 2016, before Sony axed a little off it, put it in the top 100 most expensive movies of all time.

not to mention a 65 mil weekend is totally normal…the newest independence day opened to 41 mil. you have a very strange interpretation of reality

ghostbusters (2016) only cost 144mil to make. im not sure where you are getting the very inflated numbers like 350 and 400 mil. that would make it the most expensive to produce movie of all time. you should do better research before saying this like this; it could be embarrassing.

good news since the film will look to recover its budget and marketing costs, especially with no release in China.