In theaters, the film was shown with a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon called Chariots of Fur, and was followed by the 1998 direct-to-video Stand-alone sequel Richie Rich's Christmas Wish.

Under the care of his cheerfully loyal butler Herbert Cadbury, scientist Professor Keenbean, and Dollar the Dog, Richie enjoys a luxurious but lonely life.

At his father's reopening of the local United Tool factory, Richie sees union rep Diane Koscinski's daughter Gloria and her friends playing sandlot ball, and later tries to befriend them.

As the Riches prepare to leave Chicago to visit Elizabeth II in England, Ferguson plants a bomb among their gifts for the Queen's birthday.

Determined to seize the Riches' fortune, Van Dough has Cadbury framed for the bomb and arrested, and subsequently petitions successfully to take over as Richie's legal guardian.

They enlist the help of Gloria and Diane, who develops romantic feelings for Cadbury, while Van Dough and Ferguson threaten Keenbean into revealing that the family vault requires a voice-activated code from Richard and Regina.

Richie and Gloria rally the sandlot kids to break into Rich Manor with Cadbury and Diane, using Keenbean's inventions against Van Dough's men.

Holding Richard and Regina at gunpoint, Van Dough is led to the vault hidden within "Mount Richmore", their gigantic mountainside family portrait that's in the process of being 3-D laser-carved into the rock.

Days later, Richie plays baseball with Gloria and his new friends for the United Tool team in Rich Manor's yard, coached by Cadbury, who shares a kiss with Diane.

Van Dough and Ferguson serve as the manor's gardeners as part of their work release, while Richard and Regina are overjoyed that their son has finally found something money can't buy: friends.

[2] David Mickey Evans, Peter Hewitt and Bryan Spicer[3] Warner Bros. executives became frustrated to the point they ended negotiations with Culkin in search of a new actor.

The site's critical consensus reads: "With Macaulay Culkin barely registering any emotion, Richie Rich feels disjointed and free of a sense of fun and wonderment.