Pop Mart expands Labubu beyond viral hit into lasting franchises

Pop Mart is no longer treating Labubu like a one-character lottery ticket. The company is building a franchise stack around it, with a movie in early development, a theme park that already sells exclusive merchandise, and exhibition formats designed to keep fans paying attention long after the next blind-box drop sells out.

Labubu is still the engine, but it is not the whole plan

The cleanest way to read Pop Mart’s move is through risk management. Labubu, born in 2015 from Kasing Lung’s The Monsters universe and licensed by Pop Mart in 2019, became the breakout hit that drove a huge chunk of the company’s momentum. But Pop Mart’s own 2024 annual report makes the diversification push impossible to ignore: IP incubation and operation remain the core engine of the business, and revenue from THE MONSTERS, MOLLY, SKULLPANDA, and CRYBABY each passed RMB1 billion for the first time.

That is the real collector takeaway. Pop Mart is not just milking one viral toy until it burns out. It is trying to build a roster where Labubu can stay hot while other characters share the load. In 2024, the company reported RMB13.04 billion in revenue, up 106.9% year on year. Reuters and AP later reported that 2025 revenue reached about RMB37.1 billion, up 185% year on year, even as shares fell nearly 23% in March 2026 because investors worried the business was leaning too hard on Labubu-related income.

What Pop Land says about the next phase

The most concrete clue sits in Beijing. Pop Mart’s Pop Land in Chaoyang Park spans about 40,000 square meters and reopened in April after more than a year of upgrades. That matters because the park is not being treated like a vanity project. Pop Mart told CNA it is adding new rides, shows, exclusive merchandise, and future permanent themed zones for characters including Skullpanda and Twinkle Twinkle, with construction on the next expansion expected to begin next year.

For collectors, this is where the story gets practical. Theme parks do not just generate foot traffic. They create a reason for special releases that never need to live in the standard retail ecosystem. If you care about chase value, the park is the kind of place where event-only figures, seasonal colorways, location-specific bag charms, and limited apparel can show up with a shorter life span than a blind-box wave. The more Pop Mart invests in physical destinations, the more likely it is to reserve certain items for people who show up in person.

That does not automatically mean Labubu gets pushed aside. It means the brand becomes more layered. A fan visiting Pop Land is not just there for a selfie wall. They are stepping into a controlled environment where scarcity can be engineered around attendance, not just online demand.

The film move is about keeping the character alive between drops

CNBC reported in March 2026 that Pop Mart and Sony Pictures were developing a live-action and CGI Labubu film, with Paul King attached. That is a bigger deal than a one-off licensing announcement because it signals that Pop Mart wants Labubu to live in more than one format at once. The company’s COO, Si De, put it plainly: the goal is not movies for their own sake, but storytelling that helps people “fall in love” with the IP more deeply and understand its world more intuitively.

That is textbook franchise thinking, and it has direct collector consequences. A screen project can revive older figures, spark new character variants, and push demand into back catalog pieces as new fans try to trace the story backward. It can also change the timing of releases. Once a character has film development attached, expect more overlap between media beats and merch drops, which usually means tighter windows and more urgency around preorder periods.

The numbers show why Pop Mart wants the cushion

The company’s biggest current problem is not weakness. It is concentration. CNBC reported that The Monsters accounted for 34.7% of Pop Mart’s revenue in the first half of 2025. That is an enormous share for any one property, even one that is still printing money. HSBC warned in February 2026 that Labubu growth could normalize and force cuts to 2026 and 2027 earnings estimates, which shows that the market sees the same issue collectors do: when one mascot carries too much of the company, any slowdown becomes visible fast.

Pop Mart’s answer is to widen the funnel before the hype cools. Exhibitions, parks, and films all extend the life of the character without depending on the same retail cycle every time. For buyers, that usually means two things at once: more chances to see Labubu in public, and more chances for the most desirable items to be locked to an event, venue, or media tie-in instead of a standard drop.

What to watch next if you follow Labubu for the drops

• Watch Pop Land’s next expansion closely. If construction starts next year as planned, the first concrete sign of the strategy will likely be new zones, new seasonal merchandise, and more location-only product.

• Watch whether Skullpanda and Twinkle Twinkle zones come with their own merch ecosystems. That will show whether Pop Mart is building a true character park or just adding scenery.

• Watch the Labubu film pipeline for early artwork, casting, or teaser materials. Those usually tell you whether a character is about to get a fresh wave of variants and cross-promotions.

• Watch The Monsters’ revenue share. If it stays near 34.7% of first-half revenue, Labubu remains the anchor. If it starts easing, Pop Mart’s broader franchise plan is working.

• Watch for the kind of scarcity that only happens outside normal retail. Exclusive park merchandise, exhibition-only items, and media tie-ins are the clearest signs that Pop Mart is moving from viral hit to managed universe.

That is the shift in plain collector terms. Labubu is still the headliner, but Pop Mart is trying to make it part of a bigger stage, one with ticketed spaces, screen stories, and event-only product that can keep the hunt alive even after the viral peak cools.