Cats

Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for Cats?

Directed by Tom Hooper, with Francesca Hayward, Judi Dench, Idris Elba leading the cast, Cats was produced by Universal Pictures with a confirmed budget of $95,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget category for fantasy films.

With a $95,000,000 budget, Cats sits in the mid-range of studio releases. Marketing costs for a wide release at this level typically add $30–60 million, putting the break-even point near $237,500,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• Asterix at the Olympic Games (2008): Budget $97,250,400 | Gross $131,856,927 → ROI: 36% • A Good Day to Die Hard (2013): Budget $92,000,000 | Gross $304,654,182 → ROI: 231% • Black Hawk Down (2001): Budget $92,000,000 | Gross $172,989,651 → ROI: 88% • Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024): Budget $99,000,000 | Gross $452,000,435 → ROI: 357% • 1917 (2019): Budget $100,000,000 | Gross $446,064,352 → ROI: 346%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Visual Effects & Creature Design Fantasy productions require extensive VFX for magical elements, mythical creatures, and fantastical battle sequences. Creature design alone — from concept art through motion capture and digital rendering — can consume tens of millions of dollars on a major production.

▸ Costumes, Prosthetic Makeup & Production Design Period-inspired or wholly original costumes, elaborate prosthetic and makeup applications, and richly detailed set construction are hallmarks of fantasy filmmaking. A single hero costume can cost $30,000–50,000, multiplied across dozens of featured characters.

▸ Music Score & Sound Design Fantasy epics typically commission full orchestral scores recorded with 80–100 piece ensembles, plus extensive sound design for magical effects, creature vocalizations, and immersive world audio.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Francesca Hayward, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson Key roles: Francesca Hayward as Victoria; Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy; Idris Elba as Macavity; Jason Derulo as Rum Tum Tugger

DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper CINEMATOGRAPHY: Christopher Ross MUSIC: Andrew Lloyd Webber EDITING: Melanie Oliver PRODUCTION: Universal Pictures, Perfect World Pictures, Working Title Films, Amblin Entertainment, Monumental Pictures, The Really Useful Group FILMED IN: China, United Kingdom, United States of America

Box Office Performance

Cats earned $12,990,175 domestically and $64,286,146 internationally, for a worldwide total of $77,276,321. International markets drove the majority of revenue (83%), indicating strong global appeal.

Break-Even Analysis

Using the industry-standard 2.5x multiplier (P&A + exhibitor shares of 40–50% + distribution fees), Cats needed approximately $237,500,000 to break even. The film fell $160,223,679 short in theatrical revenue. Ancillary streams (home media, streaming, TV) may have bridged the gap.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Revenue: $77,276,321 Budget: $95,000,000 Net: $-17,723,679 ROI: -18.7%

Profitability Assessment

VERDICT: Unprofitable (Theatrical)

Cats earned $77,276,321 against a $95,000,000 budget (-19% ROI), falling short of theatrical profitability. Ancillary revenue may have reduced the deficit.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Casting

In June 2018, there were reports that Anne Hathaway was considered for a role in the film, but she declined due to a scheduling conflict. Hugh Jackman was also offered a role by Hooper but turned it down. In July 2018, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, James Corden, and Ian McKellen joined the cast. Swift had previously tested for the role of Éponine in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables but was given the part of Bombalurina without an audition.

In September 2018, Laurie Davidson and Mette Towley were cast, with Steven Spielberg announced to be executive producing. In October 2018, Idris Elba and Judi Dench joined the cast of the film. Dench was cast in the original stage musical, but had been forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon; Lloyd Webber and Hooper made Old Deuteronomy a female cat and offered her the role.

In November 2018, ballet dancers Francesca Hayward and Steven McRae, and Rebel Wilson, Jason Derulo and Robert Fairchild joined the cast of the film, with rehearsals commencing at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, England. Andy Blankenbuehler choreographed the film, after Wayne McGregor was forced to back out due to scheduling conflicts. Blankenbuehler also choreographed the stage musical's 2016 Broadway revival. In December 2018, Les Twins and Eric Underwood joined the cast.

▸ Filming & Locations

Principal photography began on 12 December 2018 Swift said that the cast attended "cat school", in which "We would literally do hours on end of barefoot crawling on the floor, hissing at each other. We learned about cat instincts and the way they carry themselves and the way that they process information, the way they see the world, the way they move."

[Filming] Principal photography began on 12 December 2018 Swift said that the cast attended "cat school", in which "We would literally do hours on end of barefoot crawling on the floor, hissing at each other. We learned about cat instincts and the way they carry themselves and the way that they process information, the way they see the world, the way they move."

▸ Visual Effects & Design

Cats uses extensive visual effects (VFX) throughout to convert the live-action actors into anthropomorphic cats via computer-generated imagery (CGI). However, the production originally intended to use makeup and costumes with fur for the characters. Hooper experimented with using prosthetics to create the look of the cats due to the then-prohibitive costs of VFX, but he was dissatisfied, feeling that "[Y]ou ended up with full-faced prosthetics where you lost so much emotion. [...] So all the paths seemed to lead me back to visual effects." When production moved to digital options, companies like Technicolor SA subsidiaries Mill Film and MPC joined in for the visual effects. To aid this, the actors performed in motion capture suits with tracking dots on their costumes and faces. The bodies of the cat characters were rendered using CGI with digital fur blended with the actors' actual faces.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, a VFX editor who worked on the movie confirmed that an early, half-finished iteration of Cats featured visible anuses. Another crew member is quoted as saying that the appearance was not intentional. Rather, it was the result of the film's "unique visual effects". Ultimately, one crew member was assigned the task of editing out anything that appeared to be an anus.

Substantial work on the VFX for Cats was performed at Mill Film Montreal and Adelaide. The Daily Beast reported a troubled production; sources within one VFX studio said that staff had to work 80–90 hour weeks to finish the effects by the release date, and Hooper would send denigrating emails to individual VFX artists about their work and insult them during conferences.

▸ Music & Score

Music for the film was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber with contributions from producer Greg Wells, who was initially brought in after production in mid-2019. The recordings were created partly at Abbey Road Studios with contributions from the London Symphony Orchestra. The song "Beautiful Ghosts" by Taylor Swift, a single from the soundtrack album, was released on 15 November 2019.

Less than two months before the film was scheduled to be released in theatres, production was still ongoing for its music.

* "Overture"/"Prologue: Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" – Orchestra/Company * "The Naming of Cats"/"The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball"† – Munkustrap, Mr. Mistoffelees & Company * "Jennyanydots: The Old Gumbie Cat" – Jennyanydots, Munkustrap & Company * "The Rum Tum Tugger" – Rum Tum Tugger, Jennyanydots & Company * "Grizabella: The Glamour Cat"† – Grizabella, Cassandra, Demeter & Company * "Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town" – Bustopher, Rum Tum Tugger, Maitre D' & Company * "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" – Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer & Victoria * "Growltiger's Last Stand"† – Growltiger * "Old Deuteronomy" – Munkustrap, Old Deuteronomy & Company * "The Jellicle Ball"† – Company * "Memory (Prelude)"/"Beautiful Ghosts" – Grizabella & Victoria * "The Moments of Happiness"† – Old Deuteronomy * "Gus: The Theatre Cat" – Gus * "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat" – Skimbleshanks, Munkustrap & Company * "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" – Bombalurina, Macavity, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer, Griddlebone & Company * "Mr. Mistoffelees" – Mistoffelees, Munkustrap & Company * "Memory" – Grizabella & Victoria * "Beautiful Ghosts (Reprise)"† – Victoria & Old Deuteronomy * "The Journey to the Heaviside Layer"† – Company * "Finale: The Ad-Dressing of Cats" – Old Deuteronomy & Company

† denotes songs absent from the soundtrack.

▸ Marketing & Release

On 6 April 2019, Hudson performed "Memory" at the Las Vegas CinemaCon, along with a behind-the-scenes look with the film's cast and crew. On 17 July 2019, Universal released a behind-the-scenes featurette detailing the various aspects of production and featuring interviews with the cast and crew.

The first trailer was released on 18 July 2019, and received overwhelmingly negative reactions from viewers. Many viewers were unsettled by the mix of CGI and live-action used to portray the cats, and cited the effects as an example of the uncanny valley, with some comparing it unfavourably to the design of Sonic in the first trailer of the then-upcoming film Sonic the Hedgehog, which sparked similar criticism that ultimately resulted in the character being redesigned and the film being delayed. The studio spent about $115 million on global promotions and advertisements.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 11 wins & 8 nominations total

Additional Recognition: On 26 December 2019, it was reported that Universal had removed Cats from its For Your Consideration web page. The film was not available on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' private streaming media platform for award contenders.

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CRITICAL RECEPTION

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 19% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 334 reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: "Despite its fur-midable cast, this Cats adaptation is a clawful mistake that will leave most viewers begging to be put out of their mew-sery." On review aggregator Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 0.5 out of 5 stars, with 30% saying they would definitely recommend it. though many in the furry fandom also found the effects disturbing.

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter felt that the film was "hobbled by a major misjudgment in its central visual concept", lamenting its execution (such as the poor proportions of the "cats" to their environments) and deeming the film "exhausting". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film zero stars out of five, stating it was "bizarre", had terrible special effects, and made the audience "want to cry for mercy", while Hooper "traps the actors in an airless, lifeless bubble of a film that scarcely gives them room to breathe, much less develop a character".

In the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang wrote: "With its grotesque design choices and busy, metronomic editing, Cats is as uneasy on the eyes as a Hollywood spectacle can be, tumbling into an uncanny valley between mangy realism and dystopian artifice." Debruge said that the film should have used "face paint and Lycra" like the musical.

Simran Hans of The Observer agreed that "many of its uncanny images are sure to haunt viewers for generations". Her one-star review described the film as "a clear career low" for most of the actors, wondering whether they "are aware of what they've gotten themselves into".