Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChapfreshly nominated for multiple Oscars for his blockbuster hit, Barbietakes on a new challenge – a film based on the board game monopoly. The announcement was made on Wednesday at CinemaCon. But not how Barbiewhere the climax revolved around the toy’s original female creator, embodied by the tiny Rhea Perlman, the circumstances behind the creation of monopoly are stressful for a completely different reason. Will LuckyChap rise to the occasion with another feel-good hit that opens the door to forgotten history, or will it serve to obscure the game’s origins even further?
In The Monopolists: Obsession, Rage, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Most Popular Board GameAuthor Mary Pilon does an incredible job uncovering the secret history of monopoly. Her research, published in 2015, reaffirms that Lizzie Magie, a staunch leftist of her time, invented and patented the forerunner of monopoly known as The landlord’s game in 1903. This board game was not a story about the joys of capitalism but rather its dangers, and although it was influential in progressive circles at the time, it never became a commercial success. Only later, in the 1930s, Magie’s work served as a basis for the work of Charles B. Darrow monopoly, the game that would find its way to Parker Brothers, and finally the extensive catalog of intellectual property that now belongs to Hasbro. For more information, see an excerpt published at The guard
Given that backstory, it makes sense that Robbie’s company would consider the project. It’s another story of a woman sidelined by corporate intrigue. But in the case of the original Barbie, creator Ruth Handler was also a co-founder of Mattel. She benefited greatly from her invention. Magic, not so much, and tragically her original idea was perverted into the opposite of her intent. It’s no less disturbing story than the intergenerational traumas of American feminism, but it’s a very different story that LuckyChap has to tell.
Further complicating the optics here is the fact that just a few months ago, Hasbro completed a draconian series of layoffs that eliminated nearly a third of its workforce, a maneuver that was completed exactly two weeks before Christmas 2023. In some ways, these layoffs reflect the history of monopoly itself, depriving those who did the work of creation of the income that would otherwise have rewarded their success.
LuckyChap clearly has a lot of work to do. First it attacked the patriarchy. Now it could set its sights squarely on capitalism. Will it flinch?
