Warner Bros.' The Cat in the Hat hit theaters Friday after bringing in $1 million from Thursday previews, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
IndieWire expects a $20 million debut, and The Hollywood Reporter says the studio projects about the same. The film cost $92 million to produce, per THR and Variety, but IndieWire has it at $86 million. Box Office Theory is lower at $12 million to $17 million. Those are all forecasts, and the first real estimates are due this weekend.
The forecasts have been sliding, down from $25-35 million per SlashFilm on October 29th. By November 4th, Box Office Theory had come down to its current range, writing that "our late stage tracking has come in a bit short of previous expectations."
Families tend to go on the weekend, so the Saturday matinees should give us a much better idea of how it's doing!
On the Tomatometer, the reviews are about as close to a coin flip as you can get!
As of Friday evening, the Tomatometer stands at 48% from 48 reviews, with 23 fresh and 25 rotten. The Top Critics group is much rougher, with one fresh review out of 13. Metacritic has it at 46 from 16 critics, which the site labels "Mixed or Average."
On the negative side, Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press went right to the source material: "To quote the book's glum goldfish: 'No, I do not like it / Not one little bit.'" The New York Times' Ben Kenigsberg wrote, "A cat that once stood in for children's unchecked ids has been turned into something closer to a fairy godfather. And the movie doesn't have enough rhymes." Variety's Owen Gleiberman says, "Hader plays the Cat as capital-F Friendly, which 'works,' but it's also a bit of a letdown."
The film has its fans, too. Pete Hammond of Deadline called it "a genuine treat for everyone in the family" and gave a shout-out to the songs, including Hilary Duff's "CATastrophe," the track we covered last month when the new trailer dropped. Alonso Duralde of The Film Verdict wrote that it "captures the anarchic yet warm-hearted spirit of the original Dr. Seuss story."
Critics on both sides say it's overstuffed. The film runs 1 hour and 47 minutes. Eric Goldman of IGN liked it but says it could have used "a more merciless edit," and Liz Declan of Screen Rant didn't, pointing to "a narrative that refuses any sort of cleaning up or streamlining." Even JoBlo's Steve Seigh, who says "the movie is a lot of fun," mentions "a slightly sluggish second act."
Critics on both sides also bring up the 2003 Mike Myers movie! Goldman calls this "a much more satisfying film adaptation than the first attempt 23 years ago," and Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter calls it "an improvement over the misbegotten 2003 live-action version" even as he says it "proves more taxing than enjoyable." That 2003 movie is at 11% from 149 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Bill Hader voices the Cat, who gets a tough assignment from the I.I.I.I. (the Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC): cheer up siblings Gabby (Xochitl Gomez) and Sebastian (Tiago Martinez) after a move to a new town, or risk losing his magical hat. The film also stars Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Tituss Burgess, Bowen Yang and Paula Pell.
Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni wrote and directed, with animation by DNEG. Forbes' Tim Lammers notes this is the first animated feature based on the story. Longtime cartoon fans may also remember the 1971 CBS special with Allan Sherman as the Cat. If you'd like to read the original to the kids first, Dr. Seuss' 1957 book is still in print from Random House.
Warner Bros. has a LOT riding on this one!
IndieWire says the studio "could use a hit" after flops like Digger, The Bride! and Supergirl. A $20 million opening would be under a quarter of that production budget, and it's on track for second place behind Godzilla Minus Zero, per Variety, which also points out that 2018's The Grinch opened to $67 million and 2012's The Lorax to $70 million.
So what happens after this weekend? Box Office Theory says word of mouth "will be counted upon from there to help develop legs into Thanksgiving and beyond," and SlashFilm pointed to "relatively little competition in this arena up through Thanksgiving." That ends on November 25th, when Disney's Hexed opens in theaters. Variety says the film "won't have direct competition until" then.
That's less than three weeks away!
What do you think? Did you catch it on Thursday night? Are you taking the kids this weekend?
Related Toonado Coverage