Summary:
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Sony Pictures bets on Labubu, the toy phenomenon, for a potential movie franchise, but details are scarce.
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The film’s format – live action or animated – remains undecided, shaping Labubu’s transition from toy to screen.
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Labubu’s rise from niche art toy to mainstream status symbol prompts skepticism and concern regarding addictive consumer behavior.
Sony Pictures just placed a big bet on one of the strangest stars of the 2020s internet economy: a scruffy, sharp-toothed bunny goblin that lives in blind boxes.
The studio has acquired the screen rights to Labubu, the Chinese designer toy phenomenon created by Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung and popularized globally by retailer Pop Mart, with plans to develop a feature film and, if all goes according to plan, an entire franchise built around the character. The project is in the earliest possible stages, with no writer, director, cast, or release window announced yet.
There is one more big unknown. Despite some reports casually calling this an animated movie, trade outlets say Sony has not decided whether the film will be live action or animated. That detail will shape everything about how Labubu jumps from shelf to screen.
In 2015, Lung introduced a fairy-tale world of oddball creatures in a trilogy of picture books called The Monsters, loosely inspired by Nordic mythology. Labubu, a small monster with tall ears and serrated teeth who looks mischievous but is written as kind-hearted and helpful, quickly emerged as the breakout character.
The first Labubu toys were produced with Hong Kong company How2Work, then picked up by Beijing-based Pop Mart in 2019. Pop Mart turned Labubu into a full-blown collectible ecosystem, sold primarily through “blind box” packaging that hides which figure you are getting. That mix of surprise, scarcity, and hyper-cute design has pushed Labubu to the center of the global blind-box craze.
In the last year, the character has gone from niche art toy to omnipresent status symbol. Reuters recently reported that a human-sized Labubu figure sold for over $150,000 at auction in Beijing, with dozens of lots drawing aggressive bidding from collectors. Pop Mart’s revenues have surged triple digits, and the company says its American revenue jumped more than 1,200 percent year-over-year, with Labubu blind boxes landing on Google’s Holiday 100 list of most searched gifts.
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Celebrities helped fuel the jump from subculture to mainstream. Blackpink’s Lisa has called Labubu “my baby” in interviews and routinely shows off her collection, while athletes like NBA player Dillon Brooks have been photographed arriving at games with Labubu charms dangling from their outfits. A Vogue piece marking Labubu’s tenth anniversary this fall framed the character as a genuine fashion accessory, complete with a capsule collaboration with French luxury brand Moynat.
The toy-to-film gold rush after Barbie
On paper, a Labubu movie fits neatly into Hollywood’s current obsession with turning physical toys into cinematic universes. After Barbie cleared more than $1.4 billion worldwide, Mattel bragged that it had nearly 20 toy-based movies officially in development and dozens more still on the whiteboard, including Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels, Uno, Masters of the Universe, and even a “grounded and gritty” Magic 8 Ball thriller.
On Reddit, where the news quickly spilled across r/movies, r/nottheonion, and niche collecting subs, the reaction has skewed skeptical.
There is also a streak of genuine concern underneath the memes. The adults who fuel blind-box sales are already grappling with how addictive the hunt can be. A widely shared feature in The Guardian profiled collectors who have spent thousands of dollars chasing rare Labubu figures and compared the psychology of blind boxes to gambling. The idea of a studio turning that same loop of scarcity and FOMO into a glossy kids movie gives some viewers pause.
There actually is Labubu lore
Here is where the Labubu project gets more interesting than, say, a movie about fidget spinners. There is real backstory to pull from if Sony chooses to use it.
Lung’s original Monsters books, first published in Taiwan and later reissued in English as The Monsters Trilogy, sketch a full fairy-tale universe of creatures like Zimomo, Tycoco, and King Mon alongside Labubu, with plots that lean into morality tales and melancholy adventure. The official Pop Mart descriptions describe Labubu as a kind soul who tries to help and often makes things worse, which is basically the blueprint for a kid-friendly protagonist.
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Chinese media reports have also noted that Pop Mart quietly launched its own animation studio, with plans for a Labubu TV series and feature set inside this “Labubu Universe,” though those projects have not made major noise outside toy fandom yet.
If Sony leans into the slightly eerie folklore roots, rather than just chasing kawaii merch shots, there is room for something weird and memorable. Reddit’s horror fans have already pitched their dream version: a stop-motion, indie-leaning creature feature that takes Labubu’s “cute but cursed” energy seriously, instead of burying it under fart jokes.
Feature development typically takes years. Variety’s coverage of the deal bluntly framed Sony’s move as a bet that Labubu will “remain relevant enough down the line to draw a filmgoing audience.” That is risky for any trend, especially one moving at TikTok speed.
Labubu’s ascent has already followed a familiar arc. The toy exploded in Southeast Asia after a single viral shot of Blackpink’s Lisa with a Labubu keychain, then spread through influencer videos, shopping hauls, and resale flips. It is now at the mature-hype stage: auction records, luxury collabs, sold-out mall drops, counterfeit clones like “Lafufu” flooding marketplaces, and government agencies putting out PSAs on how to spot the real thing.
By the time Sony can get a script written, cast locked, and animation or VFX finished, the Labubu dolls on your feed may have been replaced by some other collectible. That does not automatically doom the film, but it does mean the movie will have to work as a story, not just as an extended brand commercial for the toy hanging off everyone’s tote bag in 2025.
If Sony wants Labubu to be the next Barbie instead of the next Emoji Movie, the path is surprisingly clear. It has to treat this little monster as a character first and a product second.
There is rich texture to draw from: the cross-cultural origin of a Hong Kong artist building a Nordic-inspired monster world, the way a supposedly “ugly-cute” gremlin became a luxury status object, and the tension between comfort collectibles and the very real compulsive spending they can encourage. A smart film could weave that into a coming-of-age fantasy, or even a gentler critique of consumerism, without losing the plush-toy magic that makes people love Labubu in the first place.
In the Labubu Movie (20XX)…wait, what the actual fuck, Sony?
byu/Leclerc_Lunatic inshittymoviedetails
Online, you can already see fans trying to will a better version of the project into existence. One YouTube creator titled their reaction video “My Reaction That Labubu Is Getting A Movie On Sony” and announced they would rather see a Bluey movie or another SpongeBob sequel, then spent several minutes brainstorming what a truly weird Labubu story could look like. On Instagram, fashion and pop-culture accounts are posting Labubu movie headlines next to street-style shots of the toy dangling from handbags like a trophy.
