Ever since the film’s infamous first trailer dropped back in July, Tom Hooper’s Cats has become a pop culture sensation for all the wrong reasons.
Though the movie is currently bombing at the box office – so far grossing just $15.3 million worldwide on an estimated budget of $95 million – the pic has already developed a cult following of sorts, having established its reputation as a Hollywood disaster that has to be seen to be believed.
You may have even caught the various videos circulating social media of raucous screenings packed with enthusiastic filmgoers singing along ironically, or that screenshot of Judi Dench’s human hand with unfinished CGI. Better yet, perhaps you’ve had the pleasure of witnessing that nightmarish clip of the Rebel Wilson cat devouring a cockroach with a human face before stripping off a layer of her own fur.
At this point, the very idea of Cats getting Oscar attention sounds like a punchline. And so it comes as no surprise to see that Universal Pictures has officially removed the feature from their For Your Consideration campaign. This means that the studio will not be pushing the film for nominations from the Academy or any other award-giving body, because at this point, why bother?
Coming from The King’s Speech and Les Misérables helmsman Tom Hooper, Cats will likely go down in pop culture history as a fascinating case study of what happens when Oscar-bait goes very, very wrong. Even actor and comedian James Corden can’t bring himself to stand up for the picture (let alone see it), but if the movie’s immediate so-bad-it’s-good notoriety has you curious, then you may not have long left to see it for yourself on the big screen.