If You Invested $1,000 In Mattel Stock When 'Barbie Girl' Song Was Released, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Toy lovers are celebrating around the world with the release of the highly anticipated “Barbie” movie in theaters.

A song about Barbie proved popular in the 1990s and told everyone life in plastic was fantastic. The question is whether life for Mattel shareholders has also been fantastic since the song was released.

Read on to find out.

What Happened: One of the most anticipated movies of the year, “Barbie” comes to theaters thanks to Mattel Inc MAT and Warner Bros. Discovery WBD. The movie has seen huge interest, thanks in large part to strong marketing and the starring roles of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

For months, people have wondered if the song “Barbie Girl,” released by Danish dance-pop group Aqua, would be included in the movie.

The song, which was released in April 1997, will not be in the movie on its own. Instead, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice sampled the song and released the song “Barbie World,” which can be heard in the movie’s trailer. The song credits Aqua as co-writers and gave the band another top 10 hit in the U.S. 

The third single off of Aqua’s debut album “Aquarium,” “Barbie Girl” peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and reached number one in many countries worldwide. The song was one of the most popular singles of all time worldwide.

While people around the world fell in love with the song, Barbie owner Mattel wasn’t thrilled with the questionable lyrics of the song and sued MCA Records, Aqua’s label, in 2000. The lawsuit was dismissed as the song was seen as a parody and easily distinguishable by consumers to know the difference. The music video did not contain any Barbie dolls and didn’t infringe on Barbie’s copyrights.

The video for “Barbie Girl” was uploaded to YouTube in 2010 and passed the one billion views milestone in 2022 and sits at 1.2 billion views at the time of writing. “Barbie World,” with 34 million views on YouTube has a long way to go to catch its predecessor.

Related Link: Barbie Gets Vietnam Ban Over South China Sea Map Depiction

Investing $1,000 in Mattel Stock: While Mattel sued MCA Records over the song due to the lyrics, it’s possible the song increased attention for the Barbie brand and may have led to increases in sales, especially in international markets.

Investors who recognized the popularity of the song could have bought shares of Mattel, a toy company that went public in 1960.

“Barbie Girl” was released as a single in April 1997. While the song didn’t reach its peak popularity in the U.S. until September of the same year, April is used as the starting point for this hypothetical investment.

Shares of Mattel hit a low of $12.73, adjusted for dividends in April 1997. A $1,000 investment in Mattel stock could have purchased 78.55 Mattel shares at the time.

The $1,000 investment in Mattel stock would be worth $1,680.97 today, an increase of 68.1% over the last 26 years.

While the gain is more than enough to buy a few Barbie dolls and pay for tickets to the “Barbie" movie, it significantly trails the overall market.

The same $1,000 invested in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500, could have purchased 47.84 shares of the popular ETF.

The $1,00 investment in the ETF would be worth $18,534.65 today, good for a return of 1,753.5% over the same 26-year time period.

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