Labubu cinema is real. Sony Pictures has acquired screen rights to the Chinese brand and has set its sights on developing a feature film, and potentially a franchise, based on the ubiquitous and very trendy dolls that became a pop culture fixation over the past year.
The project remains in an extremely nascent stage, with no talent or producers attached. Sony Pictures had no comment.
Though Labubu first hit the market in 2015, the line of collectible fanged figurines only exploded in popularity over recent months — first among a cultish niche, then hitting a mainstream gotta-have-it mania. The toys, from Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, are available in a “blind-box” format, meaning the exact character one is buying is a mystery until opened — a packaging strategy that has contributed to the product’s fiendish and occasionally intensely upcharged secondary market
A series of celebrity endorsements, particularly in the K-pop space, skyrocketed the brand and made it into a household name
“Labubu is my baby,” Blackpink’s Lisa said in a Teen Vogue interview earlier this year.
NBA player Dillon Brooks was seen wearing a Labubu on a chain while arriving to a playoff game in May.
“I like the Labubus. I got like four of them,” Brooks said in an interview in October. “I like the trend. It’s cool and… Um… It’s cute.”
Feature development is a years-long process, so acquiring screen rights to Labubu is a bet on the brand remaining relevant enough down the line to draw a filmgoing audience.
The Hollywood Reporter was first to report on Sony acquiring screen rights to Labubu.
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