Saturday, July 25, 2026

SUNDAY 12/29 UPDATE “Cats” Fails to Make $20 Mil in First 10 Days, Hands Taylor Swift Biggest Music Flop Ever with Song She Wrote

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SUNDAY AUGUST 29TH: Taylor Swift’s biggest music flop ever comes in the form of the song she wrote for “Cats.” As of today the much maligned movie has earned less than $18 million in its 10 days of release. 

Originally published December 27th:

EARLIER The biggest loser in this whole “Cats” mess is Taylor Swift. She became instantly identified with the movie even though she’s only in one scene. Some reviews the other day called the movie “Taylor Swift’s Cats.”

Swift wrote a song for the movie with Andrew Lloyd Webber called “Beautiful Ghosts.” It was not short listed for the Oscars’ Best Song category. That was a blow.

But now that the movie is a box office debacle with just $13 million in one week, Swift has another problem. “Beautiful Ghosts” has sold just 35K copies including streaming since it was released. Minus the streaming, there are only 12,000 downloads. It’s the biggest flop release of her career. And the song is good! What a mess.

The “Cats” soundtrack has done much worse. From December 20th through the 25th, the album has sold just 2.6K copies. That’s all downloads or CDs. There is no streaming.

Yes, it’s a disaster, but it shouldn’t be. There’s nothing wrong with the music on the “Cats” album. And Jennifer Hudson’s version of “Memory” is outstanding. Where are all those “Cats” fans from Broadway and the touring company?

Hey just a PS: one of the best Elton John songs for diehard fans is called “Friends.” It was from a 1971 movie no one ever saw– and I mean no one, not even Elton probably. Good songs outlast movies all the time!

 

 

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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