Margot Robbie and Lionsgate are developing a movie based on the classic board game Monopoly. Today at CinemaCon, Lionsgate announced that Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap and her partners Tom Ackerley and Josie McNamara are producing a Monopoly movie. Hasbro Entertainment, which owns the rights to the Monopoly board game, will also produce. LuckyChap previously was a producer on the Barbie movie, which utilized the famous doll brand owned by Hasbro rival Mattel. No details about the plot of the movie were announced, nor were any cast members, screenwriter or director announced.
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According to Lionsgate chair Adam Fogelson, there are high expectations for the film. “I could not imagine a better production team for this beloved and iconic brand than LuckyChap,” Fogelson said at CinemaCon. “They are exceptional producers who choose their projects with great thought and care, and join Monopoly with a clear point of view. We are tremendously excited to be working with the entire LuckyChap team on what we all believe can be their next blockbuster.”
Monopoly is (according to Hasbro) the world’s most popular board game brand with over 275 million copies sold worldwide and countless spinoffs. The game was developed based on The Landlord’s Game, a board game demonstrating the negative effects of land monopolies and featuring two sets of rules – an anti-monopolist ruleset and a monopolist ruleset where players tried to create a monopoly. When the Parker brothers redeveloped the game in the 1930s, they removed the anti-monopolist ruleset and placed the city in Atlantic City, leading to the aggressive real estate game we know today. The game’s mascot, Rich Uncle Moneybags, has also become associated with the wealth class and is part of worldwide pop culture.
Monopoly is a part of world pop culture and has appeared as a television show and in countless variant formats. McDonalds’ notably runs a regular Monopoly sweepstakes (which ironically was caught up in a major fraud scandal) and was briefly featured in a game show that aired at ABC in 1990. Plans for a Monopoly movie have been in the works since 2008, with Ridley Scott at one point attached to direct. In 2015, Lionsgate obtained the movie rights to the film, with Kevin Hart at one point attached to star in the film. Hasbro’s Monopoly Go is currently one of the top mobile games in the world, having earned $2 billion in less than a year.
