Sony Sets New Labubu Movie Following Toys Becoming Pop Culture Phenomenon

A Labubu movie could be coming soon. The collectible blind-buy plush toys with toothy grins and fluffy rabbit-esque fur, which have become popular accessories, were designed by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung and have been on the market since 2015. However, interest in the toys spiked in 2024 when KPop star Lisa was seen with a Labubu keychain on her bag.

Since then, they have spread to become a global phenomenon. Other celebrities who have since been spotted with Labubus include Lisa’s Blackpink bandmate Rosé, BTS members RM, J-Hope, and V, Cher, Hilary Duff, Lance Bass, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Sony has now acquired the rights to adapt the Labubu brand into a movie. They reportedly intend to expand the movie into a franchise if it performs well. At the time of writing, no further details are known about the movie, including whether it will be animated. No major crew members have been attached at this time.

If the project comes to fruition, Labubu will be the latest in a long line of toy brands to get a movie featuring its characters. The first boom of toy-based movies came in the 1980s.

That decade saw the likes of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Masters of the Universe, 1987’s G.I. Joe: The Movie, The Transformers: The Movie, My Little Pony: The Movie, and The Care Bears Movie (which received two theatrical sequels by the end of the decade).

Since then, toy movies have become a familiar feature of the cinema landscape. While theatrical productions slowed to a more steady drip, mostly dominated by the $5 billion Transformers franchise, Greta Gerwig’s 2023 movie Barbie (which grossed a record-shattering $1.447 billion) led to a new boom in toy-based movies.

Barbie company Mattel rushed a number of other movies into pre-production with various studios, including a Magic 8 Ball horror movie and titles based on View-Master, Polly Pocket, Bob the Builder, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Hot Wheels, and the game Uno. Additionally, in the wake of Barbie, Amazon MGM Studios finally pulled the trigger on a long-gestating live-action Masters of the Universe reboot.

However, there is no guarantee that all of these movies will get made, especially if the first few fail to become Barbie-level hits. Labubu is a popular enough contemporary brand that it could get rushed into production. However, if toy movies start to falter, Sony may grow skittish about the project’s viability, especially if the fad begins dying down before pre-production ends.