The critically destroyed Cats has been pulled by Universal from the Oscars Race. It is also expected to be a financial disaster for the studio.
Universal Studios officially pulled the movie from its ‘For Your Consideration’ page. This officially removes Cats from being considered for any awards at the Academy.
The ‘For Your Consideration’ page is the studio’s plea/advertisement to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences so that the academy and its voters know which particular films are up for awards consideration.
On the other hand, Cats did, however, receive a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Original Song category. The nomination was for the song ‘Beautiful Ghosts’, written by Taylor Swift and the original creator of the musical, Andrew Lloyd Weber.
After Cats received a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and was destroyed by critics across the country, Cats made only $6.9 million in its opening weekend. The film has a production budget of $95 million according to BoxOfficeMojo and with the added marketing costs probably puts the film’s total cost somewhere between $150-175 million.
For a film to be successful it usually needs to make somewhere north of 30% of its production budget, otherwise, the film may not break even, let alone make a profit.
The film is now forecasting to be at least a $100 million loss for the studio. All of this comes after Tom Hooper, the director of Cats, pushed out a visual effects updated version of the film into theatres one week after its worldwide release.
Also read: REVIEW: ‘Cats’ Makes You Want To Claw Your Eyes Out
According to reports, there were several actors who did not have finished effects, so they noticeably looked like humans instead of cats.
The nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 13 and the actual ceremony takes place on February 9.
