Mattel’s lost girls: Barbie, American Girl sales slide

Barbie turned 55 this year — and she can’t just coast on her good looks anymore.

Sales of the blond bombshell doll plunged 21 percent worldwide in the most recent quarter, intensifying a slump that’s hitting toy giant Mattel’s bottom line.

“Barbie is not out of the woods yet,” Mattel CEO Bryan Stockton said, sounding cautious notes about the crucial holiday season.

Mattel on Thursday said quarterly profit dropped 22 percent as its sales fell 8 percent. A key culprit: Barbie’s fourth consecutive double-digit sales decline — a problem whose persistence has divided analysts.

While some blame Barbie’s woes on girls’ increasing distraction with mobile devices, others contend that her glittery-pink brand of femininity has become outdated in the 21st century.

“Girls have a lot of other choices,” such as games and social media apps accessed on cellphones and tablets, says Sean McGowan, a toy analyst at Needham & Co.

The jury is still out on whether Barbie can be rehabilitated, and Mattel’s Monster High doll line is experiencing similar difficulties of late, he says.

Mattel’s problems deepened Thursday as it meanwhile disclosed a 7 percent drop in sales of its American Girl line, whose dolls command prices upward of $100 each.

Nevertheless, McGowan is skeptical of a broad-based doll crisis. Barbie sales, he notes, are being cannibalized partly by demand for Mattel’s own dolls based on “Frozen,” the animated Disney blockbuster.

Mattel, however, recently lost the lucrative “Frozen” license to archrival Hasbro — a defeat that will leave a $300 million hole in Mattel’s business as of 2016, execs admitted.

Barbie’s continued troubles sent shares of Mattel to their lowest levels in two years, capping a year-to-date decline of nearly 40 percent that left the stock at $29.62 on Thursday.

Last month, Mattel gave up its longtime distinction as the world’s largest toy company to Denmark-based Lego Group.