Sony Pictures Developing Labubu Feature Film With Paul King, Steven Levenson

Paul King and Steven Levenson are a bigger deal for Labubu than most toy-to-screen announcements ever get. Sony Pictures and Pop Mart made the project official on March 18, 2026, at the Paris stop of The Monsters’ 10th anniversary exhibition tour, and the movie is being set up as a live-action and CGI hybrid with King directing and co-writing alongside the Dear Evan Hansen screenwriter.

That pedigree matters because it gives Labubu something most collectible brands never get: a filmmaker with a real track record of making oddball IP feel expensive, and a writer who knows how to turn emotional attachment into a mainstream ticket. Kasing Lung, the Hong Kong-born, Netherlands-raised creator of Labubu and The Monsters, is on board as executive producer. Paul King, Michael Schaefer, and Wenxin She are producing, with Brittany Morrissey overseeing for Sony Pictures. The package says Sony is not treating Labubu like a novelty cameo. It is treating the character like a franchise anchor.

For collectors, the immediate question is not whether the movie will sell tickets. It is which shelves get hit first. The obvious pressure point is The Monsters line itself, especially Labubu pieces tied directly to the original 2015 picture-book trilogy and any anniversary-branded releases built around the 10th-year celebration. A film announcement this visible usually pulls fresh buyers into the core character, which tends to tighten availability on earlier runs and push renewed interest toward whatever is most recognizably “classic” Labubu. If Pop Mart follows the usual playbook, expect the strongest heat around character variants that most clearly define the brand rather than obscure side figures.

The timing is not random. Pop Mart reported 2024 revenue of RMB 13.04 billion, up 106.9% from the prior year, and Reuters later reported 2025 revenue climbed 185% to RMB 37.12 billion. Reuters also said The Monsters became Pop Mart’s first IP franchise to surpass 10 billion yuan in annual revenue. Add manufacturing expansion in Mexico, Cambodia, and Indonesia, plus plans to make London its European headquarters, and the movie looks like another step in turning Labubu from a hot designer toy into a global consumer property with serious scale.

That scale is already helped by celebrity demand from BLACKPINK’s Lisa, Rihanna, and Kim Kardashian. A Sony movie could widen the buyer pool again, and that is where the collector market gets tricky. If the film lands, the most recognizable Labubu releases will likely see the sharpest squeeze: tighter supply on core Monsters figures, higher ask prices on clean examples, and more speculative buying around any rereleases or tie-ins tied to Paris, the anniversary tour, or the original 2015-era identity of the character. For Labubu, this is the point where mainstream visibility stops being hype and starts changing what people will actually pay.