Banking on ‘Transformers’

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Hasbro Inc. struggled when the toy company tied its fortunes too closely to toys based on movies. But a movie based on its toys? That could be a different story.

Hasbro is banking that the July 4 release of the DreamWorks/Paramount movie “Transformers” — based on Hasbro’s “robots in disguise” toys introduced in the 1980s — will herald a new era for a toy company remaking itself as an entertainment company.

“‘Transformers’ sort of opens another chapter for us,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chief operating officer. “In the past, I think that the company may have thought too narrowly about its brands as forms of entertainment.”

In 2000, Hasbro lost $144 million after fads for Pokemon trading cards and the electronic pet Furby faltered.

Part of the problem was an over-reliance on movie tie-ins such as the “Star Wars” franchise, said Sean McGowan, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities.

“They would be hot for a while, then not hot,” he said.

In reaction, Hasbro’s executives turned their focus to time-tested “core brands” such as Playskool, Monopoly, My Little Pony, Transformers and others, looking for ways to parlay them into new products that would keep the company growing.

An upside to the Transformer movie is that Hasbro owns the brand, so on most products it doesn’t have to pay royalties. And it’s signed up 230 licensees for the movie for items such as video games and cell phone games, Goldner said.

The idea for the “Transformers” movie started percolating in 2002, when Goldner and his team began re-examining Hasbro’s properties for boys. “Spider-Man” was making its debut as a live-action, blockbuster movie and Goldner thought Transformers could too.

“I looked at Transformers and G.I. Joe as opportunities to enter that same arena,” he said. “Three-quarters of now-adult men had played with these products as children.”

It’s not Transformers first foray onto the silver screen — there was an animated movie in the 1980s, as sell as an animated TV show and wildly popular comic books.

But in recent years, toy companies have ramped up their movie efforts.

Marvel Studios, a division of Marvel Entertainment, has had great success of late with movies based on its comic book characters: “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” the 20th Century Fox film, which debuted as the No. 1 weekend flick last week with $57.4 million in sales.

Mattel also has released a series of successful direct-to-DVD movies based on Barbie. Later this summer, Lions Gate Films plans to release “Bratz,” a live-action movie based on the MGA Entertainment dolls.