For over 40 years, Hello Kitty has been one of the biggest franchises to come out of Japan. The company behind Hello Kitty, Sanrio, reports to having sales in the billions every year just from their Hello Kitty and Friends products.
With sales that large, fans around the world have been wondering for a long time on if there is ever going to be a big budget Hello Kitty movie? Fans of the ultra popular franchise should be happy to learn that Sanrio does actually have on in the works. Cinema Blend reports that a Hello Kitty movie is currently being planned out and should hit theaters worldwide by 2019.
Rotten Tomatoes reports, however, that the movie is still in its infancy stages and there has been no word on many of the important decisions of the movie.
For those who do not know, Hello Kitty centers around the main character Kitty White, an anthropomorphized cat who lives with her family in London. Kitty basically lives a normal life as she goes to school, writes letters to her long distance boyfriend Daniel, bakes, collects various trinkets, as well as playing with her friends and her twin sister Mimmy.
This will not be the first time Kitty will be placed on screen, there has been several TV shows over the characters long history. The longest of which aired for 12 years and produced 35 episodes.
Sanrio has established that they will be setting aside $160 to $240 million budget for the movie, which would include advertising. The company has also gone onto saying that they hope that this will be just the first of many movies starring Kitty as many of the other characters have grown as much as Hello Kitty in popularity over the years. Reports claim however, this will only happen depending on how well the Hello Kitty movie performs.
Fans are left speculating on how the format of the movie will go as there is no word on if the movie will be animated, live action or a mixture of both. Also there has been no word on any story plot, director, writers, actors, or location for the movie. Executives at Sanrio have basically a blank slate to work with since there hasn't been a movie to date for Kitty, fans of the character will surely flock to see their favorite "kitty" on the big screen once the movie comes out.