'Cats' Is Tap Dancing Its Way To A Possible $100 Million Box Office Loss

The only thing Cats can't drag in is more money. Tom Hooper's pricey big-screen adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is on track to lose up to $100 million at the box office, making the Universal film one of the biggest box office bombs of the year.

Cats just can't land on its feet. In the 11 days since it hit theaters, Cats has grossed only $38.4 million worldwide — a devastatingly meager box office return compared to the film's reported budget of between $90-$100 million before marketing costs. According to The Wrap, box office analysts estimate that Cats could wrap up its domestic run with only $40 million and a worldwide gross of $100 million...and that's if Universal is lucky.

With those numbers, Deadline says Cats is on track to lose at least $71 million, but only if the film reaches a global box office result of $100 million. If it does not, then Cats could end up with a $100 million theatrical loss, which would be a cat-tastrophe.

Cats has been coughing up hairballs since before it hit theaters over the holiday season. The star-studded feature film adaptation of the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical cost Universal $100 million to produce and an additional $95 million to $100 million for global marketing and distribution fees, according to Variety. Once Cats hit theaters, the problems only snowballed from there. The film debuted with incomplete visual effects, leading Universal to issue updated prints of the movie to exhibitors. While the film is inexplicably still on the shortlist for the Oscars best visual effects category, Universal has apparently removed Cats from its FYC page.

Universal had hoped that Cats would be a holiday sleeper hit in the vein of Fox's The Greatest Showman in 2017, but with the film opening to a disappointing $6.5 million domestically and continuing to fall quickly down the charts, it seems like Cats has used up all of its nine lives.