Topline<\/p>\n
The wildly popular Labubu dolls may soon conquer movie theaters as Sony Pictures secured development rights to the viral monster toys, the latest instance of a film studio betting on a toy adaptation movie to bring in big box office returns.<\/p>\n
Labubus became a cultural phenomenon earlier this year. (Photo by VCG\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
VCG via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> first reported Sony acquired the rights to make a film based on the popular Chinese dolls.<\/p>\n No actors, writers or director have signed onto the project yet, which is in very early stages of development, multiple<\/a> outlets<\/a> reported Friday, and a timeline for release is unclear.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether the film will be live-action or animated, and if successful, the Labubu film could be the start of a franchise, multiple outlets reported. <\/p>\n Forbes has reached out to Sony Pictures for comment. <\/p>\n Why Are Studios Betting On Toy-Based Movies?<\/p>\n Film studios in recent years have increasingly greenlit movies based on toys or games, which tend to result in big box office success. \u201cBarbie,\u201d a live-action movie based on the iconic doll and a collaboration between Warner Bros. Entertainment and Mattel, was a cultural phenomenon in 2023 and grossed<\/a> more than $1.4 billion. The success of \u201cBarbie\u201d inspired Mattel to plan additional films based on its other toys. More than a dozen are in active development, Variety<\/a> previously reported, with writer-actress Lena Dunham helming a Polly Pocket movie, \u201cWicked\u201d director Jon M. Chu directing a live-action Hot Wheels<\/a> movie and John Cena starring in a Matchbox<\/a> car movie. The New York Times<\/a> reported in 2017 that \u201cThe Lego Movie,\u201d a big box office hit released in 2014, helped spark a trend of movies based on toys and games. Film adaptations of games, particularly video games, have also been a reliable box office hit in recent years, with \u201cA Minecraft Movie<\/a>\u201d ranking as the highest-grossing film of 2025 at domestic theaters, and \u201cThe Super Mario Bros. Movie\u201d ranking behind \u201cBarbie\u201d as the second-biggest movie of 2023. Films based on the board game Catan<\/a>, the popular video game Call of Duty<\/a> and the 3D-image toy View Master<\/a> have all been greenlit by various studios in recent weeks. <\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline The wildly popular Labubu dolls may soon conquer movie theaters as Sony Pictures secured development rights to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[72298,9867,18,117,19,17,21786,1382,327,4517,102781],"class_list":{"0":"post-182037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-barbie","9":"tag-box-office","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-labubus","15":"tag-movie","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-sony","18":"tag-toy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115553776635598202","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}