Cats -- the new feature film based on the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and starring James Cordon, Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, and others -- opened last weekend and grossed $6.6 million in the U.S. It is the 19th-worst opening for any movie in very wide release in history. The 18 movies that opened to less money on a similar number of screens are mostly a bunch of stuff that you don't remember ever existed: Hoot, The Seeker: Dark Rising, Fun Size, Hardcore Henry, Keeping Up with the Joneses, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, etc.
Oh, and I forgot to say: In addition to being a financial disaster, Cats is also... terrible. It earned a C+ CinemaScore from audiences (which is really bad). And it's at 18% on the Tomatometer (which is really rotten). It's so bad that Universal released an updated version to theaters early this week that has hopefully slightly less bad special effects.
Plus: This is the last Nose of 2019. (It's the last Nose of the 2010s, even!) And so we might just spend some time talking about our favorite stuff of the year -- movies, television, books, music, kitchen gadgets, barbershops -- whatever.
Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take:
- 'Star Wars' Fans Are Angry and Polarized. Like All Americans.
- Martin Scorsese's daughter expertly trolls him with Marvel-wrapped Christmas presents
- Ed Sheeran Is Taking A 'Breather' From Music: It's Time To See 'More Of The World'
- Hallmark movies are fascist propaganda
- What's the "Best" Picture Ever?
- How the scathing "Gone Girl" rant about being the "cool girl" defined the decade
- From The Big Short to Normal People: the books that defined the decade
- 5 Songs That Defined The Decade
- The Sports Moments That Defined the Decade
- Freakshakes, avo and upscale Vegemite: 10 dishes that defined the decade
- The 25 Games That Defined The Decade
GUESTS:
- Susan Bigelow - A librarian, a columnist for CT News Junkie, and a science fiction/fantasy novelist
- Jacques Lamarre - A playwright, and director of client services at Buzz Engine
- Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University
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Colin McEnroe and Betsy Kaplan contributed to this show.
