Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, CFO Deb Thomas, and eOne CEO Darren Throop attended Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference this morning.
During the event, Mr. Goldner stated that some toys will be delayed by a quarter due to prevailing logistic concerns. He explained that as an example, a toy that was supposed to release in quarter 3 will be pushed to quarter 4 (late 2021 – early 2022). However, the company did not specify which toys will experience this delay. On a happier note, Brian Goldner stated that they are seeing gradual ease in the situation. The toy giant is using all kinds of tactics including the usage of additional ports to circumnavigate the issue.
Also due to COVID-19 pandemic, eOne will evaluate Hasbro movie releases on a case-by-case basis. Some movies will release theatrically with a shorter theatrical window as opposed to the usual 90-days before hitting home video. Some will directly shift to streaming. CEO of eOne confirmed that Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts and the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie will see a theatrical release, but did not elaborate on the release window period (90 Days vs. 45 Days). However, Mr. Throop stated that a shorter window will benefit merchandise sales.
Brian Goldner stated that more entertainment content is on its way for properties such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and Risk.
Hockeymask
LOL, why do they refer to him as "Mr. Goldner"? Was this reported by a 10 year old for a school paper? Is he the kindly neighbor next door that you grew up with? Is he your boss? Hahah how can you not laugh at 20somethings and older referring to the CEO of a consumer company they purchase product from as "Mr."?
Q Prime
Lego Advent Calendars always release September 1st.
OptimusPrime10
For sure. My walmarts still have frickin Arcee and R.E.D. Arcee from Q1, and just a few weeks ago they were barren, so those are seemingly "new". I still haven't seen a Galvatron or Rodimus. I've been off from knee surgery since February, 3x a week or so my big days are going to Target or Walmart, or both if I'm crazy. I gave up months ago on hope, now I go for science, I concur with the other gentleman. I suspect at some point they gave up mid-year and just started producing xmas shit though, I've seen things like the advent calendar lego sets for more than a month. It's been wild and frustrating.
Autobot Burnout
Isn't that why I've heard some media outlets saying to do X-mas shopping NOW?
Hoffman
More people will see it sooner, there is probably some correlation with merchandise sales as a result.
OptimusPrime10
Can anyone explain how a shorter theatrical release will yield better merchandise sales? Seems like the longer window would just get more eyeballs on figures, I'm not pushing back, but I am unable to connect the dots.
ZapRowsdower
Vietnam is having lockdowns, which affect manufacturing.
So sidestepping China is not a solution; Pandemic is f*cking up everywhere at once.
But more attention needs to be placed on the shipping problems. Its REALLY REALLY BAD.
The toy aisles have been a mess for all of 2021. What do u think happens when Xmas demand meets the Covid shipping probs? And by the way, product demand is very up.
As an investor, Im thinking Hasbro will see a hit to their bottom line and stock price. I lost a ton of money when HAS stock tanked in Feb 2020, before the other stocks, and Im thinking another drop is coming.
Can't wait to hear the boards bemoan the terrible Xmas stock this year… no magical solution is waiting till Nov. The shipping probs r expected (by industry experts) to last into 2022 or 2023!!!
WolverineDragon
…Goldman Sachs isn’t a name of a company I would like to hear in tandem with transformers.
Stygian360
I think "some toys" could probably apply to most of them due COVID, the port issues, etc. I know Hasbro has shifted much of their production from China to Vietnam at least for the Transformers line, but I'm sure that's not across all of the properties they manage. It is encouraging to hear that eOne is pivoting to streaming as most movie studios should be. Gone are the days (at least for now) where summer blockbusters are going to rake in 1billion due to movie ticket sales alone. It's going to need to be an aggregate of different viewing portals/channels and that's just the way it's going to be.
Tangentially, I keep wondering when the big budget blockbusters of old- made mostly with practical sets and effects- will start scaling down and this will be visible to audiences in a lowering of scale and perhaps even quality of films being produced. However, with the advent of so much being able to be filmed virtually like how The Mandalorian is produced, and so much done in computers these days, perhaps the smaller box office and lower budgets may not ever be truly apparent to the untrained eye. Frankly I've gotten used to watching most things on my phone, so I don't care if I get to see (for instance) the next Avatar in a movie theatre as long as I get to see it.
SilverOptimus
News Post: TFW2005 Coverage Of Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference