Labubu is making the leap from the blind box to the big screen, with POP MART working with Sony on a movie for its breakout character.
It is a natural next move for a company that has built a global fandom around characters people collect, display and share. But moving into film also raises a bigger question for POP MART: can the characters that drive collecting become stories that audiences want to spend more time with?
Speaking at DMA Singapore 2026, Jeremy Lee (pictured), head of Middle East and South Asia at POP MART, said the company’s evolution is ultimately centred on building IP that can travel across different formats and consumer touchpoints.
At the core of the business is really the IP, and the idea is once you get the IP story and IP characters right, the evolution and other businesses ideas will express itself in different forms.
For POP MART, that evolution is already happening across retail, digital experiences, collaborations and entertainment. But the move into film could be its clearest test yet of whether the company can turn collectible characters into deeper entertainment IP.
Lee was candid about where the company still has work to do.
“I feel that storytelling is something that we’ll need to continue to have. And in fact, I feel that it’s a capability that POP MART, perhaps at this point in time, has not fully mastered,” he said, adding that the movie could be the next leap for POP MART.
The movie is only one part of a broader strategy to give consumers more ways into POP MART’s characters.
In Singapore, the company has opened its first POP Bakery outside China at Sentosa. The concept combines a retail store with a bakery, while the wider business has also expanded into areas including jewellery, appliances and entertainment.
For Lee, these ventures are not simply diversification. They can act as entry points for consumers who might not otherwise engage with the brand.
“Somebody who may not be into blind boxes, but is into cute desserts, may go into a POP Bakery store, enjoy our desserts, like the desserts, and then think about, hey, you know, I have not been to the store before. Let me take a look at the store downstairs and see what I can find.”
The strategy effectively turns different formats into gateways into the wider IP ecosystem. Someone might enter through food, another through a collaboration, and another through a character or creator before discovering the broader portfolio.
Don’t miss: Why POP MART is putting its IP on the menu
The same logic applies to collaborations.
Lee pointed to the Dimoo and Pixar collaboration, in which Dimoo takes on characters including those from Toy Story, as an example of how partnerships can bring new audiences into POP MART.
“I see it as customer acquisition, new customer acquisition, because again, Pixar fans who may not know about Dimoo love Pixar. They come into the store for that, love it, and then also find the opportunity to explore other IPs within the store.”
Rather than treating collaborations simply as brand-on-brand visibility, POP MART uses individual IPs as the bridge between different fandoms.
For potential brand partners, however, the process is not simply a commercial decision.
Lee said the artist, IP team and external brand all play a role in determining whether a partnership makes sense.
The IP artist has to agree to it and see whether the brand fits his or her IP. The commercial team works on that with the external brand.
That reflects the importance POP MART places on protecting the identity of its characters as they move into different categories.
The blind box remains the starting point
For all its expansion, POP MART’s original blind box model remains central to how it creates emotional engagement.
Lee identified the surprise of unboxing and the psychology of collecting as two key drivers of its appeal. Not knowing which character is inside creates anticipation, while the desire to complete a collection encourages consumers to keep engaging.
“You can imagine or recreate that joy or surprise element of, ‘Oh my God! I wanted this, and I got what I wanted’,” he said.
That emotional response is central to what POP MART describes as “emotional value” – the idea that collectibles can deliver something beyond functional utility.
Lee compared the experience with art, where value comes not necessarily from function but from the feelings and inspiration it creates.
That principle also extends into digital. POP MART’s Pop Draw experience attempts to recreate the uncertainty of selecting a blind box online, turning the physical ritual into a gamified digital experience.
The objective remains consistent: make the interaction itself part of the brand experience.
The people behind the characters
If storytelling is POP MART’s next challenge, the company also sees the artists behind its IP as an important part of that story.
Lee highlighted Kenny Wong, who created Molly, and Kasing Lung, the creator behind The Monsters and Labubu. Fan signings, he said, can attract consumers who want not only the IP but also a connection with its creator.
That gives the fandom another layer of emotional engagement. Consumers can identify with a character, participate in its community and develop an interest in the person who created it.
Lee recalled a story from Italy in which an older woman became emotional after receiving a Labubu from her grandchildren because it reminded her of dolls she had received as a child.
“So these are the stories that I think we selectively want to highlight and kind of bring back to the community,” he said.
For POP MART, these moments show how an object can become meaningful beyond its commercial value. They also give the company stories to amplify without having to manufacture every piece of community engagement itself.
Emotion may sit at the centre of the proposition, but POP MART is also using data to determine where individual IPs have the strongest potential.
Lee pointed to the Philippines as an example. Before opening physical stores, the company had an eCommerce presence that provided insights into which IPs were already attracting consumers.
Hirono emerged as particularly popular, giving POP MART a basis for deciding which characters to forecast more heavily and where to place greater investment.
That data is combined with social listening and conversations with collectors on the ground.
Yet POP MART does not simply remove less popular characters from the equation. Lee said maintaining the broader portfolio remains important because different IPs appeal to different consumers.
That gives the company a model that can balance global characters with market-specific demand rather than betting everything on a single breakout hit.
Keeping the human behind the IP
The question of how POP MART creates its characters is becoming more relevant as generative AI changes the wider creative industry.
Lee said POP MART does allow designers to use AI as part of the creative process, including to produce images and iterations. But he drew a distinction between using AI as a tool and using it to originate the IP itself.
“The original idea is still very much human, so it’s the application of AI that they have, rather than using AI to create something altogether. So that’s quite different.”
For a company whose model is built around artists and distinctive characters, that distinction matters. POP MART is not rejecting AI outright, but is drawing a line between supporting the creative process and replacing the human origin of an IP.
Ultimately, POP MART’s model is becoming less about selling a blind box and more about building a system around a character: the artist creates it, the product introduces it, the community gives it meaning, collaborations expose it to new audiences, and experiences keep consumers engaged.
The Labubu movie could be the next test of that system.
Because once a character moves from a box into a cinema, collectability alone is no longer enough. The character needs a story worth coming back to.
Related articles:
POP MART serves up fandom with SEA’s first POP BAKERY
Is Malaysia becoming POP MART’s next big playground for character IP?
POP MART debuts new IP ‘Merodi After School’
Free newsletter
Get the daily lowdown on Asia’s top marketing stories.
We break down the big and messy topics of the day so you’re updated on the most important developments in Asia’s marketing development – for free.
